jp; >a^ 5 s^^. -s^^ 

INFORMATION 

■ ■ r 



RESPECTING 



THE ABORIGINES 

IN THE BRITISH COLONIES. 

^Circulated 6g Direction of 
THE MEETING FOR SUFFERINGS. 

BEING PRINCIPALLY EXTRACTS FROM 

THE REPORT PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, BY THE 
SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED ON THAT SUBJECT. 




00 LONDON: 
DARTON AND HARVEY 

G RACECH URCH-STREE T = 



1838. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED BY JOSEPH R1CKEMBY, 
SHERBOURN LANK. 



YEARLY MEETING, 1837. 



The following minute from the General Committee 
has been brought in and read : this Meeting adopts 
the suggestion therein contained, and desires the 
Meeting for Sufferings to pay close attention to the 
subject, and to act in it at their discretion. 

" General Committee, 6 mo. 1st, 1837. — This 
Committee having had under its serious considera- 
tion the circumstances of the Aborigines of the Bri- 
tish Colonial Possessions, particularly the Indians 
in Upper Canada, submits to the Yearly Meeting 
the propriety of recommending the subject to the 
close attention of the Meeting for Sufferings." 

In consequence of the foregoing Minute of the Yearly 
Meeting, the Meeting for Sufferings appointed a Committee, 
on the subj ect. The attention of the Committee has been turned 
to the Report presented to the House of Commons at the 
close of the last session, on the state of the Aborigines in 
and near the British Settlements. This valuable document 
has furnished the Committee with a variety of very useful 
and interesting, though distressing, information on the whole 
subject referred to in the Yearly Meeting's Minute. They 
believe that they cannot at present better promote the object 
committed to them than by circulating generally throughout 
the Society extracts from this Report. 



IV 

Although the mode in which evidence is generally taken 
by Committees of the House of Commons is not favourable to 
the statements offered being so interesting and attractive as 
they might be made, were they accompanied by all the ad- 
vantages of the description of collateral circumstances and 
connected and minute details, yet the extensive range which 
the Report takes in, and the variety of testimony of an au- 
thentic character which the volumes of evidence offer, concur, 
with the station of those by whom the enquiry was instituted, 
to give to the information elicited a high degree of importance, 
which entitles it to the most serious attention. 

The most striking fact to be deduced from the great body 
of evidence which has been collected is lamentable and awful. 
It appears that in almost every instance in which our country- 
men have come in contact with the uncivilized Aborigines, 
in any part of the globe, they have exerted an influence 
which has tended powerfully to reduce the numbers and 
greatly to degrade the moral and physical character of the 
natives. In some instances absolute extinction of the natives 
has already taken place — in others the work is nearly com- 
pleted — -whilst in most of the remainder, it is proceeding 
with a dreadful and accelerating rapidity. 

It has been said, that in these cases the natives become 
extinct rather than that they are exterminated ; but it must 
be a voluntary self-delusion which can make us contented 
with this mode of stating the case. A numerous population 
cannot be cut off from the soil upon which their forefathers 
lived and multiplied, and upon which an exotic race of recent 
introduction now proves remarkably prolific, without the 
operation of some great and highly pernicious influence. 
Whether we can at once perceive it or not, its existence is 
incontrovertible, and it becomes the duty of Christian philan- 
thropists, possessing the means, to seek it out, and to labour 
to apply if possible a prompt and efficient remedy. 

For centuries the slave-trade had brought thousands of the 
sons of Africa to an untimely death, and devoted many thou- 
sands more to all the horrors of slavery ; but whilst Africa 



V 



and the western world, as well as the intervening ocean, were 
thus rendered the scenes of the most revolting atrocities 
which human nature could perpetrate, the inhabitants of this 
country were generally ignorant of those events, and were 
consequently, regardless of the sufferings which their com- 
merce and their luxuries occasioned. By degrees attention 
was awakened, all the iniquities of that infamous traffic 
in its various ramifications were brought to light, and the 
apathy of ignorance was succeeded by that almost universal 
expression of popular feeling which has already performed 
so much for the suppression of the slave-trade and the 
abolition of slavery, and which promises never to become 
extinct until the work be completed. 

The sufferings of those uncivilized races, whom the civilized 
and nominally Christian world have sacrificed, rather than 
enslaved, to gratify their avarice, have in the mean time been 
almost totally disregarded. The inquiry which the Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons has instituted, has clearly 
ascertained several of the causes which have concurred in 
producing them. In many instances the Aborigines have 
been reduced by wanton and wholesale murders. In some, 
the land which supplied them with the means of subsistence, 
and their com and cattle, where they had acquired such 
possessions, have been taken from them. Sometimes they have 
been made the victims of the cruelty of other uncivilized tribes, 
whom our countrymen have supplied with means for invading 
and exterminating them. In many instances they have been 
injured in their property and dearest connexions, and then 
have paid the forfeit of their lives, when they have attempted 
retaliation or defence. Loathsome and fatal diseases have been 
introduced amongst those tribes which have shown a willino- 
ness to enter into amicable relations with our countrymen ; 
and the diminution of their numbers which has followed has 
been scarcely less awful than that which has been occasioned 
by famine and the sword. But even the introduction of 
these diseases, which have caused such abundant calamities 
has been a less prolific source of evil than the intoxicating 



Vi 



liquors which have been given them in exchange for their 
valuable commodities. Ardent spirits, which have corrupted 
their morals, ruined their constitutions, and reduced whole 
tribes to the lowest state of wretchedness and degradation, 
have been made the means of carrying on a trading system 
of the most fraudulent description. 

From the wide extent over which these transactions have 
been perpetrated, and from the character and situation of 
the individuals who have in most instances been eno-aoed 
as actors, it is obvious that great difficulties must stand 
in the way of coming at the whole truth respecting them ; 
greater in fact than those which it required all the courage 
and perseverance of the early advocates of the African cause 
to overcome. Still much may be done, if a general interest 
in the cause can be excited. The perishing races of un- 
civilized man present claims similar to those of the victims 
of the slave-trade and slavery ; — and with this additional 

feature in their case, they are rapidly disappearing before 

us ; and whilst we hesitate to plead their cause, they cease 
to exist, and we shall inquire after them in vain. 

It may not be amiss to remind Friends, that although the 
whole class of Aborigines to whom the preceding observations 
apply, loudly call for our sympathy and regard, the Abori- 
gines of North America possess a claim of a strong and 
peculiar character upon our religious Society. It was with 
them that William Penn held that memorable treaty, in 
which he set an example to all succeeding colonists, in pur- 
chasing the land of its native and legitimate possessors, after 
having already received or purchased it from his own govern- 
ment. In that treaty William Penn and the Indians mu- 
tually promised each other a friendship and alliance which 
should continue as long as the sun and moon endure. Wil- 
liam Penn followed up the professions which he made at 
that treaty, by enacting laws, not merely securing to them 
equal rights and protection with his imported colonists, but 
providing against their becoming sufferers from unfair deal- 
ing, in consequence of their inferiority in knowledge and ac- 



Vll 



quirements. The Indians, on their part, treated the members of 
our society very differently from other settlers, not only refrain- 
ing from offering them any injury, but preserving their lives 
by supplying them with food, when they had no resources of 
their own to trust to. # Although the regulations enacted by 
William Penn, and maintained by Friends whilst the govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania remained with them, have been set 
aside since it has passed into other hands, the Indians have 
not ceased to maintain inviolate the friendship which they pro- 
mised; and, notwithstanding the desperation produced by the 
horrors of war and the ruined state of their affairs, occasioned, 
as they well knew, by the conduct of the whites, they have 
not ceased to distinguish the consistent members of our 
Society, protecting them from injury, regarding them as bro- 
thers, and looking up to them for counsel and assistance. 
When William Penn's treaty was concluded, our early 
Friends received great advantages from it : the time has 
long passed since Friends had anything to hope or to 
fear from their red brethren, and it is now the Indians' turn 
to claim all the advantages which a treaty they have never 
violated, and friendship repeatedly assured to them, entitle 
them to expect. If it be due to them from our American 
fellow-members, whose forefathers were preserved by Indian 
kindness and hospitality ; it may also be considered as in de- 
gree due from our Society in this country, as parts of the 
same religious body, and regarded by the Indians as one 
family. And, besides, with reference to the Indians within 
the Canadian frontier, it is manifest that if anything can be 
done by Friends, it must be done mainly, if not solely, by 
the exertions of Friends in England. A double advantage 
may be looked for from our exertions in this cause. First, 
that which may be immediately gained by Canadian Indians ; 
and, secondly, that to be obtained by the indirect influence 
which may be extended to those of the Aborigines more im- 
mediately connected with our American brethren. How can 



See Clarkson's Life of William Penn, vol i. p. 357. 



Vlll 



we encourage our Friends in any of the American Yearly 
Meetings, who have already devoted so much labour and 
pains to the subject, if we neglect the comparatively limited 
portion of the work which falls to our hands ? Friends in 
America have had extraordinary difficulties to contend with, 
in consequence of the repeated removals effected by the 
policy of their government : removals which have broken 
up every settlement under their care as soon as the happy 
fruits of their instruction began to appear. The relation of 
such disappointments has for many years formed a conspicuous 
part of our correspondence with American meetings on this 
painfully interesting topic. If anything can now be effected 
by our American brethren, it must be either by individuals 
engaged in a most arduous work, by which they must in 
general be separated many hundred miles, and for a length 
of time from their connexions, or by remonstrances with a 
government which has hitherto shown no disposition to re- 
cede from this destructive policy. 

The Report from which the following extracts are taken 
contains less information on the subject of the North 
American Indians than we could have wished to find in it ; 
but some steps have been taken by the Committee, appointed 
by the Meeting for Sufferings, to obtain from Friends in 
Canada more full and accurate information respecting those 
Indians who have been or are intended to be removed by 
the agents of our Government. Two members of the Com- 
mittee have also had an interview with the Secretary of State 
for the Colonial department, in reference to the treatment, 
of the Indians within the limits of Upper Canada; and 
particularly to the highly objectionable project of the 
Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head, for removing them from 
their valuable settlements and reservations to the small rocky 
islands in Lake Huron, and other districts further to the 
north-west.* Although the Friends were assured that Go- 

* The following is the substance of the information laid before Friends, 
at the time of the last Yearly Meeting, on this part of the subject ; and it is 
thought that advantage may arise from re-stating it here. 



IX 



vernment would pay attention to the subject, and endeavour 
to see the rights of the Indians respected, the fact, that 
measures have actually been taken to effect some of these 
removals, and transfer the reservations to other hands makes 
it but too evident that greater exertions and renewed appeals 
must be made, if any effectual advantage is to be obtained 
for the Aborigines in that quarter. 

It is a great satisfaction to find that the cause of this 
oppressed people is now obtaining the active support of the 
Wesleyan Methodists in that colony. 

In a letter from a member of that connexion, in Upper 

It appears that, in reference to the North American Indians in Upper 
Canada and the adjoining territories, a process is now going forward, very 
similar to that which has, for a long course of years, been pursued by the 
United States towards the Indians on their frontier. The Indians are in- 
duced by persuasion to abandon, almost for nothing, their richest and most 
valuable tracts of land, (including their settlements, and the plots which 
have been brought under culture through the instructions of the different 
missionaries,) and to fall back upon districts incapable of supporting them 
for any long time by the chace, and greatly inferior to their old settlements 
for the purposes of civilized life. 

The obvious motive with the executive government of Canada, for adopt- 
ing this line of policy towards the Indians, is to please the white settlers 
around them, who complain that the Indians have all the best land in the 
country, and evidently wish to turn them out and take possession of it for 
themselves. 

It appears that in the course of one year only, (1836,) the governor of 
Upper Canada induced the Chippeway, Ottaway, Sauger, and Huron tribes 
to abandon very extensive and valuable tracts of land almost without any 
equivalent. The Saugers, without even the pretence of a remuneration, 
voluntarily ceded one million five hundred thousand acres of the very best 
land in Upper Canada, advantageously situated, adjoining the land of the 
Canada Company. The Ottaways and Chippeways also, without any com- 
pensation, abandoned a vast number of islands in the northern parts of 
Lake Huron. The Huron tribe relinquished 6 miles square of rich land in 
the Thames River, in consideration of the proceeds of one-third being in- 
vested for their benefit. The Moravian Indians also, for an annuity of 
£150 abandoned 6 miles square of black rich land, on which there are con- 
siderable improvements and cultivated spots. And it may be remarked, 
in general, and more especially with reference to the two last tracts of 

b 



Canada, dated " the 26th of Sept., 1837," and addressed to 
one of the Committee, the following statement occurs : — - 

" Two days after my arrival I met all my brethren in the 
ministry at our annual meeting, in the proceeding and con- 
clusion of which, we were of one mind and one heart. 
Among other things, we adopted a strong memorial to the 
Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head, on the subject of the 
Indian Lands and Missions, and which was some days after- 
wards presented to him. The Superintendent of Missions 
is now visiting the different stations to get the fullest in- 
formation from the Indians, in writing under their own hands ; 
and we shall, in a short time, meet Sir Francis in a manner 
that he does not expect." 

For several reasons the larger portion of the following 
Extracts relates to the Aborigines of South Africa. The 
details furnished by Dr. Philip and other important witnesses, 
are particularly explicit and full. They exhibit in the clearest 
manner the operation of most of the causes which have 
concurred to bring this distress and destruction upon the 
Aborigines of a colonized country. They show how far the 

territory, that they are not merely hunting-grounds, hut, to a certain 
extent at least, regions in which civilization and agriculture have made 
some progress. 

It is further proposed by the Governor to remove all these different 
tribes to the islands in Lake Huron, ceded (as before mentioned) to the 
British Government by the Chippeways and Ottaways — a measure which is 
manifestly calculated to defeat every hope of improving their condition, or 
even of preserving the actual state of those who are in any degree civilized. 
Many of these islands are sterile spots : granite rock covered with timber, 
of but little value for any purposes except hunting and fishing. Their ex- 
tent varies from a few yards square to 15 miles. They are, moreover, situ- 
ated so far to the north-west, that it is very doubtful whether Indian corn 
could be raised, even on such as might be sufficiently fertile ; and should 
the attempt to raise this crop fail, the probable result will be incalculable 
suffering, and even famine itself. Yet is the permission to the several 
tribes of Indians to locate themselves on these islands (which have been 
ceded by two of the tribes) the only provision offered to the Indians, besides 
the small pittance of £150 a year and one-third of the proceeds of the land 
ceded by the Huron Indians. 



Government agents themselves are led by profligate and 
designing settlers to give strength and activity to the most 
unjust and revolting measures; and moreover they exhibit 
in a most encouraging manner the good which may be 
effected by persevering and well-directed efforts, unchecked 
by opposition and persecution, provided ample and authentic 
details can be perseveringly brought under the notice of our 
Government. We may further learn from what has been 
done in Southern Africa how much the combined influence, of 
Christianity and civilization can effect for the security as 
w T ell as amelioration of the oppressed heathen. The case of 
the Caffres and Hottentots furnishes a bright example, as well 
as much encouragement to all those who may be willing to 
undertake the cause of other portions of the human race 
similarly circumstanced. 

Other extracts are given having the same tendency, and 
showing how much the experience of those who have laboured 
with uncivilized tribes of various races, and in various situa- 
tions, sanctions our looking for great and satisfactory results 
from a well-conducted combination of religious instruction, 
intellectual cultivation, and the introduction of the useful 
arts. These encouraging examples are furnished by the exer- 
tions of those belonging to other religious denominations ; 
and although we, as a Society, do not send out teachers ap- 
pointed to preach to the Heathen, we may not unprofitably 
put the question to ourselves, Whether we are performing all 
which it is our duty to do for the temporal and spiritual 
welfare of our oppressed and benighted fellow-creatures, in 
the different modes which our principles would not only 
sanction but enjoin. 

In conclusion, we would invite the co-operation of Friends 
individually, and more especially direct their attention to the 
following points : — 

The collection and diffusion of information on the subject; 

The pressing on the attention of members of Parliament, 
colonial officers, and other persons of influence, the wrongs 
and claims of the injured Aborigines of our distant colonies ; 



Xll 



The promoting, through suitable channels, the civil, moral, 
and religious welfare of these, our uncivilized fellow-men, 
equally with ourselves, the objects of Christian redemption, 
but many of whom are still involved in great spiritual dark- 
ness, as well as temporal misery. 



For further information on the subject, the Committee 
may refer Friends to the Report itself from which the follow- 
ing extracts are taken, and an edition of which has been 
published by the Aborigines' Protection Society, (London : 
William Ball, Aldine Chambers, Paternoster Row ; Hatchard 
and Son, Piccadilly,) and to the several volumes of evidence 
taken by the Committee of the House of Commons, and 
published amongst the Parliamentary Papers, 



THE SELECT COMMITTEE lt appointed to consider what Mea- 
sures ought to be adopted with regard to the Native Inhabit- 
ants of Countries where British Settlements are made, and 
to the neighbouring Tribes, in order to secure to them the due 
observance of Justice and the protection of their Rights ; to pro- 
mote the spread of Civilization among them, and to lead them to 
the peaceful and voluntary reception of the Christian Religion ;" 
and to whom the Report of the Committee of 1836 was referred ; 
and who were empowered to report their Observations thereupon, 
together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before them, to 

The House; Have examined the Matters to them referred, 

and have agreed to the following REPORT : 

The situation of Great Britain brings her beyond any other power 
into communication with the uncivilized nations of the earth. We 
are in contact with them in so many parts of the globe, that it has 
become of deep importance to ascertain the results of our relations 
with them, and to fix the rules of our conduct towards them. We 
are apt to class them under the sweeping term of savages, and 
perhaps, in so doing, to consider ourselves exempted from the obli- 
gations due to them as our fellow-men. This assumption does not 
however, it is obvious, alter our responsibility ; and the question 
appears momentous, when we consider that the policy of Great 
Britain in this particular, as it has already affected the interests, 
and we fear we may add, sacrificed the lives, of many thousands, 
may yet, in all probability, influence the character and the destiny 
of millions of the human race. 

The extent of the question will be best comprehended by taking a 
survey of the globe, and by observing over how much of its sur- 
face an intercourse with Britain may become the greatest blessing, 
or the heaviest scourge. It will scarcely be denied in word, that, as 
an enlightened and Christian people, we are at least bound to do 
to the inhabitants of other lands, whether enlightened or not, as we 
should in similar circumstances desire to be done by ; but, beyond 
the obligations of common honesty, we are bound by two conside- 
rations with regard to the uncivilized : first, that of the ability which 
we possess to confer upon them the most important benefits; and, 
secondly, that of their inability to resist any encroachments, how- 
ever unjust, however mischievous, which we may be disposed to 
make. The disparity of the parties, the strength of the one, and the 
incapacity of the other, to enforce the observance of their rights, 
constitutes a new and irresistible appeal to our compassionate pro- 
tection. 

The duty of introducing into our relations with uncivilized na- 
tions the righteous and the profitable laws of justice is incontro=* 

B 



2 



vertible, and it has been repeatedly acknowledged in the abstract, 
but has, we fear, been rarely brought into practice ; for, as a nation , 
we have not hesitated to invade many of the rights which they hold 
most dear. 

Thus, while Acts of Parliament have laid down the general prin- 
ciples of equity, other and conflicting Acts have been framed, dis- 
posing of lands without any reference to the possessors and actual 
occupants, and without making any reserve of the proceeds of the 
property of the natives for their benefit. 

Reference is then made to several declarations of the 
British Government, both in former and more modern 
times, proclaiming in terms a more just and Christian 
course of procedure towards the Aborigines. 

In furtherance of these views, your Committee was appointed to 
examine into the actual state of our 'relations with uncivilized na- 
tions ; and it is from the evidence brought before this Committee 
during the last two Sessions, that we are enabled to compare our 
actions with our avowed principles, and to show what has been, 
and what will assuredly continue to be, unless strongly checked, 
the course of our conduct towards these defenceless people. 

It is not too much to say, that the intercourse of Europeans in 
general, without any exception in favour of the subjects of Great 
Britain, has been, unless when attended by missionary exertions, a 
source of many calamities to uncivilized nations. 

Too often, their territory has been usurped ; their property seized ; 
their numbers diminished ; their character debased ; the spread of 
civilization impeded. European vices and diseases have been intro- 
duced amongst them, and they have been familiarized with the use 
of our most potent instruments for the subtle or the violent de- 
struction of human life, viz. brandy and gunpowder. 

It will be only too easy to make out the proof of all these asser- 
tions which may be established solely by the evidence above re- 
ferred to. It will be easy also to show that the result to ourselves 
has been as contrary to our interest as to our duty ; that our sys- 
tem has not only incurred a vast load of crime, but a vast expen- 
diture of money and amount of loss. 

On the other hand, we trust it will not be difficult to show by 
inference, and even to prove, by the results of some few experiments 
of an opposite course of conduct, that setting aside all considera- 
tions of duty, a line of policy, more friendly and just towards the 
natives, would materially contribute to promote the civil and com- 
mercial interests of Great Britain. 

It is difficult to form an estimate of the population of the less 
civilized nations, liable to be influenced for good or for evil, by 
contact and intercourse with the more civilized nations of the earth. 
It would appear that the barbarous regions likely to be more imme- 



3 



diately affected by the policy of Great Britain, are the south and the 
west of Africa, Australia, the islands in the Pacific Ocean, a very 
extensive district of South America at the back of our Essequibo 
settlement, between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, with the im- 
mense tract which constitutes the most northerly part of the Ame- 
rican continent, and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

These are countries in which we have either planted colonies, or 
which we frequent for the purposes of traffic, and it is our business 
to inquire on what principles we have conducted our intercourse. 

It might be presumed that the native inhabitants of any land have 
an incontrovertible right to their own soil : a plain and sacred right, 
however, which seems not to have been understood. Europeans have 
entered their borders uninvited, and, when there, have not only 
acted as if they were undoubted lords of the soil, but have punished 
the natives as aggressors if they have evinced a disposition to live 
in their own country. 

" If they have been found upon their own property, they have 
been treated as thieves and robbers. They are driven back into the 
interior as if they were dogs or kangaroos." 

From very large tracts we have, it appears, succeeded in eradi- 
cating them ; and though from some parts their ejection has not 
been so apparently violent as from others, it has been equally com- 
plete, through our taking possession of their hunting-grounds, 
whereby we have despoiled them of the means of existence. 

NEWFOUNDLAND. 

To take a review of our colonies, beginning with Newfoundland. 
There, as in other parts of North America, it seems to have been 
for a length of time accounted a " meritorious act" to kill an 
Indian.* 

On our first visit to that country the natives were seen in every 
part of the coast. We- occupied the stations where they used to 
hunt and fish, thus reducing them to want, while we took no trou- 

* Cotton Mather records, that, amongst the early settlers, it was 
considered a " religious act to kill Indians." 

A similar sentiment prevailed amongst the Dutch boors in South 
Africa with regard to the natives of the country. Mr. Barrow writes, 
u A farmer thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than 
the murder of one of these people. A boor from Graaf Reinet being- 
asked in the secretary's office, a few days before we left town, if the 
savages were numerous, or troublesome on the road, replied, ' he had 
only shot four,' with as much composure and indifference as if he 
had been speaking of four partridges. I myself have heard one of 
the humane colonists boast of having destroyed, with his own hands., 
near 300 of these unfortunate wretches," 



4 



ble to indemnify them, so that doubtless many of them perished by 
famine; we also treated them with hostility and cruelty, and 
" many were slain by our own people as well as by the Micmac 
Indians," who were allowed to harass them. They must, however, 
have been recently very numerous, since in one place Captain 
Buchan found they had " run up fences to the extent of 30 miles/' 
with a variety of ramifications, for the purpose of conducting the 
deer down to the water, a work which would have required the 
labour of a multitude of hands. 

It does not appear that any measures were taken to open a com- 
munication with them before the year 1810, when, by order of Sir 
J. Duckworth, an attempt was made by Captain Buchan which 
proved ineffectual. At that time he conceived that their numbers 
around their chief place of resort, the Great Lake, were reduced to 
400 or 500. Under our treatment they continued rapidly to dimi- 
nish ; and it appears probable that the last of the tribe left at large, 
a man and a woman, were shot by two Englishmen in 1823. Three 
women had been taken prisoners shortly before, and they died in 
captivity. In the colony of Newfoundland it may therefore be 
stated that we have exterminated the natives. 

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

The general account of our intercourse with the North American 
Indians, as distinct from missionary efforts, may be given in the 
words of a converted Chippeway chief, in a letter to Lord Goderich : 
" We were once very numerous, and owned all Upper Canada, and 
lived by hunting and fishing ; but the white men, who came to 
trade with us, taught our fathers to drink the fire-waters, which 
has made our people poor and sick, and has killed many tribes, till 
we have become very small." 

It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that some years ago 
the Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring corn to 
our settlements, then suffering from famine; but we, by driving 
them back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so 
completely a wandering people that they have very much lost any 
disposition which they might once have felt to settle. All writers 
on the Indian race have spoken of them in their native barbarism as 
a noble people, but those who live among civilized men, upon reser- 
vations in our own territory, are now represented as " reduced to a 
state which resembles that of gypsies in this country." Those who 
live in villages among the whites " are a very degraded race, and 
look more like dram-drinkers than people it would be possible to 
get to do any work." 

To enter however into a few more particulars. The Indians of New 
Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglas, in 1825, as " dwindled 
in numbers," and in a " wretched condition." 



a 



Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt,) as disin- 
clined to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, " unhappily 
for rum." 

General Darling's statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, 
drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the Government 
being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals 
whose landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, 
are daily plundered by their designing and more enlightened white 
brethren. 

Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, 
" Their situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and 
improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which 
they were placed by Government in the year 1763, and which tract 
they have naturally considered as their own. The result of the pre- 
sent state of things is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time 
to be attended with bloodshed and murder ; for, driven from their 
own resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, 
who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of 
white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while the 
threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have been 
insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven 
by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards his off- 
spring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of his brethren, 
as a means of alleviating his misery, when he finds the example in 
the conduct of his White Father's children practised, as he conceives, 
towards himself." 

The General also speaks of the "degeneracy'' of the Iroquois, and 
of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the ex- 
ception of those only who had received Christian instruction. Later 
testimony is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, Secretary to 
the Wesleyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the 
Chippeway chief above referred to, on the condition of the Indians 
on the boundary of Upper Canada. That he stated most unequivo- 
cally that previously to the introduction of Christianity they were 
rapidly wasting away ; and he believed that, if it had not been for 
the introduction of Christianity, they would speedily have become 
extinct. As to the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentioned 
the decrease of the game, the habit of intoxication, and the Euro- 
pean diseases. The small-pox had made great ravages. He adds, 
" The information which I have derived from this chief has been 
confirmed by our missionaries stationed in Upper Canada, and who 
are now employed among the Indian tribes on the borders of that 
province. My inquiries have led me to believe, that where Chris- 
tianity has not been introduced among the aboriginal inhabitants of 
Upper Canada, they are melting away before the advance of the 
white population. This remark applies to the Six Nations, as they 
are called, on the Great River, the Mohawks, Onedias, Onondages, 
Senecas, Cayugas and Tuscaroras, as well as to all the other tribes 



V 



6 



on the borders of the province." Of the ulterior tribes, the account 
given by Mr. King, who accompanied Capt. Back in his late Arctic 
expedition, is deplorable; he gives it as his opinion, that the North- 
ern Indians have decreased greatly r and " decidedly from contact 
with the Europeans." 

Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, " have now degene- 
rated into a few families, congregated about the European esta- 
blishments, while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have 
become partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves." 
He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within 30 or 40 
years from 8,000 or 10,000 to 200, crat most 300, and has no doubt 
of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no measures are 
taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits of civilization. 
It should be observed that this tribe had access to posts not com- 
prehended within the Hudson's Bay Company's prohibition, as to 
the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miserably show 
the effects of the privilege. 

The Copper Indians also, through ill-management, intemperance 
and vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to one 
half the number of what they were. 

The early quarrels between the Hudson's Bay and the North 
West Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a 
bloody part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savage- 
ness of Christians. Mr. Pelly, the chairman of the Hudson's Bay 
Company has, however, assured your Committee, that many of the 
evils caused by the rivalry of the two companies have been removed 
by their junction, and that the present directors are well disposed to 
promote the welfare of the Indians : yet we observe, that the witness 
above quoted, Mr. King, who has travelled in the country, is of 
opinion, that even our system of peaceable trade has a tendency to 
become injurious to these people, by encouraging them in improvi- 
dent habits, which frequently bring large parties of them to utter 
destitution and to death by starvation. 

But whatever may be the actual condition of the Indians at the 
present moment, on which subject there appears to be some diver- 
sity of testimony, we entirely concur in the wisdom, the humanity, 
and the right feeling which dictated the following paragraph : — 

It appears to me that the course which has hitherto been taken in 
dealing with these people has had reference to the advantages which 
might be derived from their friendship in times of war, rather than to 
an}' settled purpose of gradually reclaiming them from a state of bar- 
barism, and of introducing amongst them the industrious and peaceful 
habits of civilized life. Under the peculiar circumstances of the 
times, it may have been originally difficult to pursue a more enlight- 
ened course of policy; the system may, perhaps, have been persisted 
in by the Home and Colonial Governments rather as a matter of rou- 
tine than upon any well considered grounds of preference, whilst, on 
the part of the Indians themselves, there is no doubt that its accord- 
ance with their natural propensities and with their long established 



7 



habits rendered it more acceptable to them than any other, nor is it 
unlikely that, if on the one hand there existed a disposition in the 
aboriginal inhabitants to cling to their original habits and mode of 
life, there was a proneness also in the occupants of America to regard 
the natives as an irreclaimable race, and as inconvenient neighbours, 
whom it was desirable ultimately wholly to remove. Whatever may 
have been the reasons which have hitherto recommended an adher- 
ence to the present system, I am satisfied that it ought not to be per- 
sisted in for the future ; and that so enlarged a view of the nature of 
our connexions with the Indian tribes should be taken as may lead to 
the adoption of proper measures for their future preservation and im- 
provement; whilst, at the same time, the obligations of moral duty 
and sound policy should not be lost sight of. 

SOUTH AMERICA. 

In South America, British Guiana occupies a large extent of 
country between the rivers Orinoco and Amazons, giving access to 
numbers of tribes of Aborigines who wander over the vast regions of 
the interior. The Indian population within the colony Demerara 
and Essequibo, is derived from four nations, the Caribs, Arawacks, 
Warrows, and Accaways. 

It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since 
the Brtish came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were 
computed at 5,096 ; and it is stated "it is the opinion of old in- 
habitants of the colony, and those most competent to judge, that 
a considerable diminution has taken place in the aggregate num- 
ber of the Indians of late years, and that the diminution, al- 
though gradual, has become more sensibly apparent within the last 
eight or ten years." The diminution is attributed, in some degree, 
to the increased use of rum amongst them. 

There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of " Pro- 
tectors of Indians," whose office it is to superintend the tribes, and 
under them are placed Post-holders, a principal part of whose busi- 
ness it is to keep the Negroes from resortingto the Indians, and also 
to attend the distribution of the presents which are given to the 
latter by the British Government, of which, as was noticed with re- 
prehension by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part. 

It does not appear that anything has been done by Government 
for their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 
1831, by Sir B. DTJrban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where 
a small establishment was then founded by the Church Mission- 
ary Society. The Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up 
in 1817; and it does not appear that any other Protestant Society 
has attended to these Indians. 

In 1831 Lord Goderich writes, " I have not heard of any effort 
to convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to im- 
part to them the arts of social life." 

It should be observed that no injunctions to communicate either 
are given in the instructions for the " Protectors of Indians," or in 



8 



those for the Post-holders ; and two of the articles of the latter, 
(Art. 14 and Art. 15,) tend directly to sanction and encourage im- 
morality. All reports agree in stating that these tribes have been 
almost wholly neglected, are retrograding, and are without provision 
for their moral or civil advancement ; and with due allowance for 
the extenuating remarks on the poor account to which they turned 
their lands, when they had them, and the gifts (baneful gifts some of 
them) which have been distributed, and on the advantage of liv- 
ing under British laws, we must still concur in the sentiment of 
Lord Goderich, as expressed in the same letter, upon a reference as 
to sentence of death passed upon a native Indian for the murder of 
another. " It is a serious consideration that we have subjected 
these tribes to the penalties of a code of which they unavoidably live 
in profound ignorance ; they have not even that conjectural know- 
ledge of its provisions which would be suggested by the precepts of 
religion, if they had even received the most elementary instruction 
in the Christian faith. They are brought into acquaintance with ci- 
vilized life, not to partake its blessings, but only to feel the severity 
of its penal sanctions. 

" A debt is due to the aboriginal inhabitants of British Guiana 
of a very different kind from that which the inhabitants of Christen- 
dom may, in a certain sense, be said to owe in general to other bar- 
barous tribes. The whole territory which has been occupied by 
Europeans, on the Northern shores of the South American Continent, 
has been acquired by no other right than that of superior power ; 
and I fear that the natives whom we have dispossessed, have to this 
day received no compensation for the loss of the lands on which 
they formerly subsisted. However urgent is the duty of economy in 
every branch of the public service, it is impossible to withhold from 
the natives of the country the inestimable benefit which they would 
derive from appropriating to their religious and moral instruction 
some moderate part of that income which results from the cul- 
ture of the soil to which they or their fathers had an indisputable 
title." 

CARIBS. 

Of the Caribs, the native inhabitants of the West Indies, we 
need not speak, as of them little more remains than the tradition that 
they once existed.* 

NEW HOLLAND. 
The inhabitants of New Holland, in their original condition, 



* When these islands were first discovered by Columbus, the inha- 
bitants were very numerous ; and even when by a treaty between the 
French and English, in 1660, they were confined to the islands of Do- 
minica and St. Vincent, they amounted to not less than 6000 persons, 
— See Encycl. Britannica, Art. Caribee Islands. 



9 



have been described by travellers as the most degraded of the 
human race ; but it is to be feared that intercourse with Europe- 
ans has cast over their original debasement a yet deeper shade of 
wretchedness. 

These people, unoffending as they were towards us, have, as 
might have been expected, suffered in an aggravated degree from 
the planting amongst them of our penal settlements. In the forma- 
tion of these settlements it does not appear that the territorial rights 
of the natives were considered, and very little care has since been 
taken to protect them from the violence or the contamination of the 
dregs of our countrymen. 

The effects have consequently been dreadful beyond example, 
both in the diminution of their numbers and in their demoralization. 

Many deeds of murder and violence have undoubtedly been 
committed by the stock-keepers (convicts in the employ of farmers 
in the outskirts of the colony,) by the cedar- cutters, and by other 
remote free settlers, and many natives have perished by the various 
military parties sent against them ; but it is not to violence only 
that their decrease is ascribed. This is the evidence given by 
Bishop Broughton : " They do not so much retire as decay; when- 
ever Europeans meet with them they appear to wear out, and gradu- 
ally to decay : they diminish in numbers ; they appear actually to 
vanish from the face of the earth. I am led to apprehend that 
within a very limited period, a few years," (adds the Bishop,) " those 
who are most in contact with Europeans will be utterly extinct — I 
will not say exterminated — but they will be extinct." 

As to their moral condition, the Bishop says of the natives around 
Sydney, " They are in a state which I consider one of extreme de- 
gradation and ignorance ; they are, in fact, in a situation much in- 
ferior to what I supposed them to have been before they had any 
communication with Europe." And again, in his charge, " It is an 
awful, it is even an appalling consideration, that, after an inter- 
course of nearly half a century with a Christian people, these hap- 
less human beings continue to this day in their original benighted 
and degraded state. I may even proceed farther, so far as to ex- 
press my fears that our settlement in their country has even dete- 
riorated a condition of existence, than which, before our interference, 
nothing more miserable could easily be conceived. While, as the 
contagion of European intercourse has extended itself among them, 
they gradually lose the better properties of their own character, they 
appear in exchange to acquire none but the most objectionable and 
degrading of ours." 

The natives about Sydney and Paramatta are represented as in a 
state of wretchedness still more deplorable than those resident in the 
interior. 

" Those in the vicinity of Sydney are so completely changed, they 
scarcely have the same pursuits now ; they go about the streets 
begging their bread, and begging for clothing and rum. From the 



10 



diseases introduced among them, the tribes in immediate connection 
with those large towns almost became extinct ; not more than two 
or three remained, when I was last in New South Wales, of tribes 
which formerly consisted of 200 or 300." 

Dr. Laing, the minister of the Scotch church, writes, " From the 
prevalence of infanticide, from intemperance and from European 
diseases, their number is evidently and rapidly diminishing in all 
the older settlements of the colony, and in the neighbourhood of 
Sydney especially, they present merely the shadow of what were 
once numerous tribes." Yet even now " he thinks their number 
within the limits of the colony of New South Wales cannot be less 
than 10,000 : an indication of what must once have been the popu- 
lation, and what the destruction. It is only, Dr. Laing observes, 
through the influence of Christianity, brought to bear upon the na- 
tives by the zealous exertions of devoted missionaries, that the pro- 
gress of extinction can be checked/' 

The case of these people has not been wholly overlooked at home. 
In 1825 His Majesty issued instructions to the Governor to the ef- 
fect that they should be protected in the enjoyment of their posses- 
sions, preserved from violence and injustice, and that measures 
should be taken for their conversion to the Christian faith, and their 
advancement in civilization. An allowance has been made to the 
Church Missionary Society in their behalf, and efforts for their 
amelioration have been made, and attended with some degree of 
utility ; but much as we rejoice in this act of justice, we still must 
express our conviction that if we are ever able to make atonement 
to the remnant of this people, it will require no slight attention, and 
no ordinary sacrifices on our part to compensate the evil association 
which we have inflicted ; but even hopelessness of making repara- 
tion for what is past would not in any way lessen our obligation to 
stop, as far as in us lies, the continuance of iniquity. " The evil/' 
said Mr. Coates, " resulting from immoral intercourse between the 
Europeans and the Aborigines, is so enormous that it appears to 
my mind a moral obligation on the local Government to take any 
practicable measures in order to put an end to it." 

In this opinion the Committee entirely concur. 

A new colony is about to be established in South Australia, and 
it deserves to be placed upon record, that Parliament, as lately as 
August 1834, passed an Act disposing of the lands of this country 
without once adverting to the native population. With this re- 
markable exception, we have had satisfaction in observing the pre- 
liminary measures for the formation of this settlement, which ap- 
pears, if we may judge from the Report of the Colonial Commis- 
sioners, likely to be undertaken in a better spirit than any such 
enterprises that have come before our notice. The Commissioners 
acknowledge that it is " a melancholy fact, which admits of no dis- 
pute, and which cannot be too deeply deplored, that the native 
tribes of Australia have hitherto been exposed to injustice and 



n 



cruelty in their intercourse with Europeans ;" and they lay down 
certain regulations to remedy these evils in the proposed settlement.* 

On the western coast of Australia collisions have not unfrequently 
taken place between the colonists and the natives. * * * * 

We find the natives on the Murray River mentioned as amongst 
the most troublesome in this quarter ; and in the summer of the year 
1834 they murdered a British soldier, having in the course of the 
previous five years killed three other persons. In the month of 
October 1834 Sir James Stirling, the Governor, proceeded with a 
party of horse to the Murray River, in search of the tribe in question. 
On coming up with them, it appears that the British horse charged 
this tribe without any parley, and killed fifteen of them, not, as it 
seems, confining their vengeance to the actual murderers. After 
the rout, the women who had been taken prisoners were dismissed, 
having been informed, " that the punishment had been inflicted be- 
cause of the misconduct of the tribe ; that the white men never for- 
get to punish murder; that on this occasion the women and children 
had been spared ; but if any other person should be killed by them, 
not one would be allowed to remain on this side of the mountains." 

However needful it may be to overawe the natives from commit- 
ting acts of treachery, we cannot understand the principle of such 
indiscriminate punishment, nor approve of threats extending to the 
destruction of women and children. * * * * 

We are however happy to learn that, in his general policy, Sir 
James Stirling has pursued conciliatory measures towards the neigh- 
bouring tribes, and that measures are in progress for effecting their 
civilization. 

VAN DiEMEN'S LAND. 

The natives of Van Diemen's Land, first, it appears, provoked 
by the British colonists, whose early atrocities, and whose robberies 
of their wives and children, excited a spirit of indiscriminate ven- 
geance, became so dangerous, though diminished to a very small 
number, that their remaining in their own country was deemed in- 
compatible with the safety of the settlement. 



* Had such a course of conciliation been followed in the establishing 
of the colony at Raffles Bay, on the northern shore of Australia, it is 
probable that the " hostility of the natives" would never have been 
among the reasons for the abandonment of that settlement. It is said, 
that on the trifling offence of the theft of an axe, the sentinels were 
ordered to fire at the natives whenever they approached. Captain 
Barker, in command when the order came for the abandonment of the 
settlement, had pursued a different course, and had won their con- 
fidence ; and, it is said, that, far from being such " untameable savages 
as originally represented, they proved themselves to be a mild and 
merciful race of people."— See Wilson's Voyage. 



12 



In their case, it must be remembered, the strongest desire was felt 
by the Government at home, and responded to by the local Go- 
vernor, to protect and conciliate them; and yet, such was the un- 
fortunate nature of our policy, and the circumstances into which it 
had brought us, that no better expedient could be devised than the 
catching and expatriating of the whole of the native population. 
There is no doubt that the outrages of the Aborigines were fearful ; 
but while the local " Aborigines' Committee," in 1831, who recom- 
mended the removal, speak of the "forbearance" exercised both 
by the Government and the greater part of the community, they 
state that there is the " strongest feeling amongst the settlers, that 
so long as the natives have only land to traverse, so long will life 
and every thing valuable to them be kept in a state of jeopardy;" 
and they intimate their fear that if the measure recommended be not 
adopted, " the result will be that the whites will individually or in 
small bodies take violent steps against the Aborigines, a proceeding 
which they cannot contemplate the possibility of without horror ; 
but which, they do believe, has many supporters in this colony 
they therefore urge the removal under the " persuasion that such a 
measure alone will have the effect of preventing the calamities which 
His Majesty's subjects have for so long a period suffered, and of 
preventing the entire destruction of the Aborigines themselves." 

The Governor Colonel Arthur's words on the subject are these : 
" Undoubtedly the being reduced to the necessity of driving a sim- 
ple, but warlike, and, as it now appears, noble-minded race from 
their native hunting-grounds, is a measure in itself so distressing, 
that I am willing to make almost any prudent sacrifice that may 
tend to compensate for the injuries that the Government is unwil- 
lingly and unavoidably made the instrument of inflicting." 

The removal accordingly proceeded under the management of Mr. 
Robinson ; (which is described by Colonel Arthur as able and hu- 
mane) and in September 1834 it was so nearly effected, that the 
Governor writes thus : " The whole of the aboriginal inhabitants of 
Van Diemen's Land (excepting four persons) are now domiciliated, 
with their own consent, on Flinder's Island." 

From still later reports it appears that not a single native now re- 
mains upon Van Diemen's Land. Thus, nearly, has the event been 
accomplished which was thus predicted and deprecated by Sir G. 
Murray : — 

The great decrease which has of late years taken place in the 
amount of the aboriginal population, render it not unreasonable to 
apprehend that the whole race of these people may at no distant pe- 
riod become extinct. But with whatever feelings such an event may 
be looked forward to by those of the settlers who have been sufferers 
by the collisions which have taken place, it is impossible not to con- 
template such a result of our occupation of the island as one very dif- 
ficult to be reconciled with feelings of humanity, or even with prin- 
ciples of justice and sound policy; and the adoption of any line of 



13 



conduct, having for its avowed or secret object the extinction of the 
native race, could not fail to leave an indelible stain upon the British 
Government. 

ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. 

We next turn our view to those islands in the Pacific Ocean *° 
which we resort for purposes of traffic, without having planted 
colonies upon them ; and again we must repeat our belief that our 
penal colonies have been the inlet of incalculable mischief to this 
whole quarter of the world. It will be hard, we think, to find com- 
pensation not only to Australia, but to New Zealand and to the in- 
numerable islands of the South Seas, for the murders, the misery, 
the contamination which we have brought upon them. Our run- 
away convicts are the pests of savage as well as of civilized society ; 
so are our runaway sailors ; and the crews of our whaling vessels, 
and of the traders from New South Wales, too frequently act in the 
most reckless and immoral manner when at a distance from the re- 
straints of justice : in proof of this we need only refer to the evi- 
dence of the missionaries. 

It is stated that there have been not less than 150 or 200 run- 
aways at once on the island of New Zealand, counteracting all that 
was done for the moral improvement of the people, and teaching 
them every vice. * * * * 

The lawless conduct of the crews of vessels must necessarily have 
an injurious effect on our trade, and on that ground alone demands 
investigation. In the month of April 1834, Mr. Busby states there 
were 29 vessels at one time in the Bay of Islands, and that seldom a 
day passed without some complaint being made to him of the most 
outrageous conduct on the part of their crews, which he had not the 
means of repressing, since these reckless seamen totally disregarded 
the usages of their own country and the unsupported authority of 
the British resident. 

Till lately the tattooed heads of New Zealanders were sold at 
Sydney as objects of curiosity ; and Mr. Yate says he has known 
people give property to a chief for the purpose of getting them to 
kill their slaves, that they might have some heads to take to New 
South Wales. * * * * 

The Committee next advert to the pernicious effects 
of the crews of merchant vessels upon the natives. 

The Rev. J. Williams, missionary in the Society Islands, states 
" that it is the common sailors, and the lowest order of them, the 
very vilest of the whole, who will leave their ship and go to live 
amongst the savages, and take with them all their low habits and 
all their vices." The captains of merchant vessels are apt to con- 



14 



nive at the absconding of such worthless sailors, and the atrocities 
perpetrated by them are excessive ; they do incalculable mischief 
by circulating reports injurious to the interests of trade. On an 
island between the Navigator's and the Friendly group, he heard 
there were on one occasion 100 sailors who had run away from 
shipping. Mr. Williams gives an account of a gang of convicts 
who stole a small vessel from New South Wales, and came to 
Raiatia, one of the Sandwich Islands, where he resided, represent- 
ing themselves as shipwrecked marines. Mr. Williams suspected 
them, and told them he should inform the Governor, Sir T. Bris- 
bane, of their arrival, on which they went away to an island 20 
miles off, and were received with every kindness in the house of the 
chief. They took an opportunity of stealing a boat belonging to 
the missionary of the station, and made off again. The natives im- 
mediately pursued, and desired them to return their missionary's 
boat. Instead of replying, they discharged a blunderbuss that was 
loaded with cooper's rivets, which blew the head of one man to 
pieces ; they then killed two more, and a fourth received the con- 
tents of a blunderbuss in his hand, fell from exhaustion amongst 
his mutilated companions, and was left as dead. This man, and a 
boy who had saved himself by diving, returned to their island. 
u The natives were very respectable persons, and had it not been 
that we were established in the estimation of the people, our lives 
wouidliave been sacrificed. The convicts then went in the boat 
down to the Navigator's Islands, and there entered with savage fero- 
city into the wars of the savages. One of these men was the most 
savage monster that ever I heard of : he boasted of having killed 300 
natives with his own hands." Had Mr. Williams been invested with 
authority, he could have confined these men on their arrival and 
prevented their further crimes. * 

And in June 1833, Mr. Thomas still speaks of the mischief done 
by ill-disposed captains of whalers, who, he says, " send the refuse 
of their crews on shore to annoy us ;" and proceeds to state that 
the conduct of many of those " masters of South Sea whalers is 
most abominable ; they think no more of the life of an heathen than 
•of a dog. And their cruel and wanton behaviour at the different 
islands in those seas has a powerful tendency to lead the natives to 
hate the sight of a white man." Mr. Williams mentions " one of 
these captains, who with his people had shot 20 natives, at one of 
the islands, for no offence and " another master of a whaler 
from Sydney, made his boast, last Christmas, at Tonga, that he 
had killed about 20 black fellows,— for so he called the natives of 
the Samoa, or Navigator's Islands,— for some very trifling offence ; 
and not satisfied with that, he designed to disguise his vessel, and 
pay them another visit, and get about a hundred more of them." 
" Our hearts," continues Mr. Thomas, " almost bleed for the poor 
Samoa people; they are a very mild, inoffensive race, very easy of 



15 



access ; and as they are near to us, we have great hope of their 
embracing the truth, viz., that the whole group will do so : for you 
will learn from Mr. Williams's letter, that a part of them have 
already turned to God. But the conduct of our English savages has 
a tone of barbarity and cruelty in it which was never heard of or 
practised by them." 

It is impossible but that such conduct should bring retaliation ; 
and unfortunately the natives do not always discriminate between 
the innocent and the guilty ; so that occasionally crews just arrived 
are liable to suffer for the misdemeanors of their predecessors. We 
believe, however, that to almost all of these cases may be applied the 
declaration made by a missionary respecting some which occurred 
in New Zealand : " Not one case has ever come under my own ob- 
servation, never under any circumstances, but what the Europeans 
have been the aggressors, or have committed some breach in a 
known New Zealand law ; though I will say that the natives have 
not always punished the right, that is, the offending party." 

" We have scarcely ever," says Mr. Ellis, " inquired into a 
quarrel between the natives and the Europeans in which it has not 
been found to have originated either in violence towards the females, 
or in injustice in traffic or barter on the part of the Europeans." 

We have felt it our duty to advert to these glaring atrocities, 
perpetrated by British subjects, but we must repeat that acts of this 
nature form but the least part of the injuries which we have in- 
flicted on the South Sea islanders. The effects of our violence are 
as nothing compared to the diffusive knowledge of moral evil which 
we have introduced ; and many as are the lives of natives known 
to have been sacrificed by the hands of Europeans, the sum of these 
is treated as bearing but a trifling proportion to the mortality occa- 
sioned by the demoralization of the natives. * * * * 

On this subject, the moral effect of the intercourse of Europeans 
in general with these people, savages and cannibals as they were 
before we visited them, Mr. Williams adds his testimony : " I 
should say, with few exceptions, that it is decidedly detrimental, 
both in a moral and civil point of view. And, in attempting to 
introduce Christianity among a people, I would rather by far go to 
an island where they had never seen an European, than go to a 
place after they have had intercourse with Europeans. I had ten 
times rather meet them in their savage state, than after they have 
had intercourse with Europeans." 

SOUTH AFRICA. 

In the beginning of the last century, the European colony in 
Africa was confined to within a few miles of Cape Town. From 
that period it has advanced, till it now includes more square miles 
than are to be found in England, Scotland and Ireland ; and with 



16 



regard to the natives of great part of this immense region, it is stated, 
" any traveller who may have visited the interior of this colony 
little more than 20 years ago, may now stand on the heights of 
Albany, or in the midst of a district of 42,000 square miles on the 
north side of Graaff Reinet, and ask the question : Where are the 
aboriginal inhabitants of this district which I saw here on my for- 
mer visit to this country, without any one being able to inform him 
where he is to look for them to find them/' 

The disappearance of the former possessors of this immense region 
cannot, indeed, be accounted for in a few sentences, but we will 
endeavour to give a brief sketch of the fate of some of the tribes 
who have held possession of South Africa, premising that the Abo- 
rigines of this country may be classed under two distinct races, 
Hottentots and Caffres. 

The first are divided into two branches, the " tame" or colonial 
Hottentots, and the wild Hottentots or Bushmen. To the Hotten- 
tots belong the Corannas, Gonaquas and the mixed tribe of Gri- 
quas. The appellation CafFres, though sometimes still applied in a 
more extensive sense, is generally used in the Cape colony to de- 
note the three contiguous tribes of Amakosa, Amatembee and 
Amaponda. Tambookies is a name the English have given to the 
Amatembee. Mambookies is our English name for the Amaponda, 
and the Amakosa comprehend the tribe under the family of Gaika, 
and who inhabit the country between the Kei and the Keiskamma, 
and lie nearest to this colony, along the chain of mountains stretch- 
ing from the sources of the Kat river to the sea. 

When the Cape was discovered by the Portuguese, the Hotten- 
tots were both numerous and rich in cattle. It was observed of 
them, that they kept the law of nations better than most civilized 
people. The Dutch formed their first settlement at the Cape in 
1652, and their Governor, Van Reibeck, gives vent in his journal 
to a very natural sentiment, and one which we fear has been too 
prevalent with succeeding colonists, when he describes himself as 
looking from the mud walls of his fortress on the cattle of the na- 
tives, and wondering at the ways of Providence, which could bestow 
such very fine gifts on Heathen. 

In the same spirit are the following entries ; — 

December 15th, 1652. — " To-day the Hottentots came with thou- 
sands of cattle and sheep close to our fort, so that their cattle nearly 
mixed with ours. We feel vexed to see so many head of fine cattle, 
and not to be able to buy to any considerable extent. If it had been 
indeed allowed, we had opportunity to-day to deprive them of 10,000 
head, which, however, if we obtain orders to that effect can be done 
at any time, and even more conveniently, because they will have 
greater confidence in us. With 150 men, 10,000 or 11,000 head of 
black cattle might be obtained without danger of losing one man ; 
and many savages might be taken without resistance, in order to be 
sent as slaves to India, as they still always come to us unarmed." 

December 18th. — " To-day the Hottentots came again with thou- 



1 1 



sands of cattle close to the fort. If no further trade is to be expected 
with them, what would it matter much to take at once 6,000 or 8,000 
beasts from them? There is opportunity enough for it, as they are 
not strong in number, and very timid ; and since not more than two 
or three men often graze a thousand cattle close to our cannon, who 
might be easily cut off, and as we perceive they place every confi- 
dence in us, we allure them still with show of friendship to make 
them the more confident. It is vexatious to see so much cattle, so ne- 
cessary for the refreshment of the Honourable Company's ships, of 
which it is not every day that any can be obtained by friendly trade.' * 

The system of oppression thus begun never slackened till the 
Hottentot nation were cut off, and the small remnant left were 
reduced to abject bondage. From all the accounts we have seen 
respecting the Hottentot population, it could not have been less 
than 200,000, but at present they are said to be only 32,000 in 
number. 

When the English took possession of the Cape, they found them 
the actual, though not the nominal, slaves of the boors, and after 
some feeble efforts on their part for emancipation, as such we suf- 
fered the boors to retain them. 

The law of passes, by subjecting the Hottentots to " rigorous 
control in moving from one place to another," did indeed much 
towards rivetting their chains, as it had the effect of placing them 
under the control of any inhabitants of the colony, who never 
wanted frivolous pretexts to detain them at compulsory and unpaid 
labour. 

Every obstacle continued to be opposed to their civil or moral 
advancement, and as late as 1828, we find it stated in the law 
passed by General Bourke for their relief, that doubts existed upon 
the competency of the Hottentots and other free persons of colour 
(the recent possessors, be it remembered, of the whole soil) to pur- 
chase or possess land in the colony. 

All parties agree in their account of the state of the Hottentots 
before the passing of the 50th Ordinance, a measure of admirable 
justice, by which their freedom was declared and their civil rights 
were recognised. These are the words of Colonel Wade : — 

I do not consider it requisite to enter into any detailed history of 
the state of utter degradation from which the 50th Ordinance was in- 
tended to rescue the Hottentots and other free persons of colour : 
suffice it to say, that, from all I have been able to learn, the state of 
the slaves was a thousand times preferable, in every point of view, to 
that of this unhappy race, who, amounting at the very least to a fourth 
part of the whole free population of the settlement, were held in the 
most degrading thraldom by their fellow-subjects, at the same time 
that both Dutch and English Governments over and over again ad- 
mitted, and, by the strangest of all inconsistencies, admitted it in the 
very Proclamations and Ordinances in which the compulsory servi- 
tude was provided for, that 'the Hottentots were a free people.' 
From the withering effects of this bondage (in truth, I know not how 

C 



18 



to designate so monstrous an anomaly,) the 50th Ordinance was in- 
tended to emancipate them. * * * * 

Besides the subjected Hottentots, there were other Africans of 
the same or of kindred tribes, who were early designated under the 
term Bushmen, from their disdaining to become bondsmen, and 
choosing rather to obtain a precarious subsistence in the fields or 
forests. From their fastnesses, they were apt to carry on a predatory 
warfare against the oppressors of their race, and in return were 
hunted down like wild beasts. This state of things is thus described 
by Captain Stockenstrom : — 

The white colonists having, from the first commencement of the set- 
tlement, gradually encroached on the territory of the natives, whose 
ejectment (as is too well known) was accompanied with great injus- 
tice, cruelty and bloodshed, the most hostile feelings were entertained 
by the weaker party towards those whom they considered as their op- 
pressors. The Aborigines who did not become domesticated (as it 
was called) like the Hottentots, seeing no chance of retaining or reco- 
vering their country, withdrew into the interior as the whites ad- 
vanced, and beingdrivento depredations by the diminution of the game, 
which constituted their principal means of subsistence, and which 
gradually disappeared when more constantly hunted, and as the wa- 
ters became permanently occupied by the new comers, they often 
made desperate attacks upon the latter, and in their turn were guilty 
of great atrocities. Some of the rulers of the colony in those days 
were, no doubt, favourable to measures of conciliation, but the evil soon 
got beyond their power of control. In proportion as the pastoral po- 
pulation increased, more and more land was taken possession of, and 
more desperate and bloody became the deeds of revenge on both sides, 
until the extermination of the enemy appeared even to the Govern- 
ment the only safe alternative, at least it became its avowed object, as 
the encouragement given to the hostile expeditions, the rewards of the 
successful commanders of the same, and many documents still extant 
clearly demonstrate. The contest being beyond comparison unequal, 
the colonial limits widened with great rapidity. A thin white popula- 
tion soon spread even over the great chains of the Suven andNewveld 
mountains, whilst the hordes who preferred a precarious and often 
starving independence to servitude, were forced into the deserts and 
fastnesses bordering on the frontier. 

It will be at once perceived that I am here alluding to a period of 
the colonial history not long previous to the close of the last century, 
and that the Aborigines spoken of are the Bushmen and some tribes 
of Hottentots, for our relations with the Caffres and others are some- 
what of a different nature, as I will show in the sequel. Thus the iso- 
lated position of most of the intruders afforded the strongest tempta- 
tion to the savages occasionally to wreak their vengeance. The nu- 
merous herds of our peasantry grazing on the usurped lands proved 
too seductive a bait for the hungry fugitives, who saw the pasturage 
of their flocks (the game) thus occupied; but their partial success 
against individual families was generally dearly bought by the addi- 
tional loss of life and land in the long run. 

In 1774, an order was issued for the extirpation of the whole of 



19 



the Bushmen, and three commandos, or military expeditions, were 
sent out to execute it. The massacre at that time was horrible, and 
the system of persecution continued unremitting-, so that, as we have 
seen, Mr. Barrow records it came to be considered a meritorious act 
to shoot a bushman. 

In 1795, the Earl of Macartney, by proclamation, authorised the 
landdrosts and magistrates to take the field against the wild 
Bosjesmen, whenever such an expedition should appear requisite 
and proper; a practice to which, in some parts, they needed not 
much urging ; for Mr. Maynier, in his answers to the Commission- 
ers of Inquiry, says, "When I was appointed Landdrost of Graaf 
Reynet, I found that regularly every year large commandos, consist- 
ing of 200 or 300 armed boors, had been sent against the Bosjes- 
men, and learnt by their reports, that generally many hundred of 
Bosjesmen were killed by them, amongst which number there were 
perhaps not more than six or ten men (they generally contriving to 
save themselves by flight,) and that the greatest part of the killed 
comprised helpless women and innocent children. 

" I was also made acquainted with the most horrible atrocities 
committed on those occasions, such as ordering the Hottentots to 
dash out against the rocks the brains of infants (too young to be car- 
ried off by the farmers for the purpose to use them as bondmen,) in 
order to save powder and shot." ***** 

After a time, we find that a milder system was enjoined, and in 
some places the Bushmen became the willing herdsmen of the boors, 
and whenever they were well treated, they are described to have 
made faithful servants ; but the boors were too often tempted to 
buy or to kidnap their children, and to turn the parents off the 
lands which they took into occupation ; and so completely is the 
country south of the Orange river now cleared of Bushmen, that 

in 1834, Dr. Philip wrote in a memorial to the Government, — 

***** 

A few years ago, we had 1,800 Boschmen belonging to two mission- 
ary institutions, among that people in the country between theSnew- 
bergen and the Orange river, a country comprehending 42,000 square 
miles ; and had we been able to treble the number of our missionary 
stations over that district, we might have had 5,000 of that people un- 
der instruction. In 1832, I spent 17 days in that country, travelling 
over it in different directions. I then found the country occupied by 
the boors, and the Boschmen population had disappeared, with the 
exception of those that had been brought up from infancy in the ser- 
vice of the boors. In the whole of my journey, during the 17 days I 
was in the country, I met with two men and one woman only of the 
free inhabitants, who had escaped the effects of the commando system, 
and they were travelling by night, and concealing themselves by day, 
to escape being shot like wild beasts. Their tale was a lamentable 
one ; their children had been taken from them by the boors, and they 
were wandering about in this manner from place to place, in the hope 
of finding out where they were, and of getting a sight of them. * * * 

We proceed to take a brief retrospective review of our relations 

c 2 



20 



with the Caffre race ; a people generically distinct from the tribes 
of Hottentots, Bushmen and Griquas, and superior perhaps, from 
the effect of circumstances, to the two former in valour and intelli- 
gence. 

For a considerable period, under the Dutch government, the 
Gamtoos river had been considered the limit of the colony. Pre- 
vious to our occupation of the Cape in 1780, the Dutch governor, 
in a proclamation of that date, fixed upon the Great Fish River as 
the utmost limit of the colony on the eastern frontier. This, how- 
ever, was only a restrictive and prospective boundary, as the CafFres 
were still left in possession of the country, and in 1798 Lord Mac- 
artney claiming all that the Dutch assumed as belonging to them by 
the vague proclamation of Governor Van Plattenberg, this new 
boundary was declared by a proclamation of his Lordship, in which 
we find mention of our contiguity to the CafFres. The preamble of 
this proclamation states, " Whereas hitherto no exact limits have 
been marked out respecting the proper boundaries between this co- 
lony, the CafFres and the Bosjesmen, and in consequence of such 
limits not being regularly ascertained, several of the inhabitants in 
the more distant parts of this settlement have united in injuring the 
peaceful possessors of those countries, and under pretence of barter- 
ing cattle with them, reduce the wretched natives to misery and 
want, which at length compels them to the cruel necessity of having 
recourse to robbing, and various other irregularities in order to sup- 
port life;" he therefore fixes the Great Fish River as the eastern 
boundary, and strictly forbids the inhabitants of the colony to pass 
beyond it. 

The terms of this proclamation are remarkable, compared with 
others, inasmuch as we thereby find that at various times two seve- 
ral reasons have been assigned for taking away land from the 
CafFres ; the one that they make inroads upon us, that they are 
troublesome neighbours, that we are not safe in their vicinity, we 
therefore pronounce their land forfeited ; the other, as in Lord 
Macartney's proclamation, that we have been the oppressors, that 
we have seized their land and reduced the people to be plunderers 
from starvation, we therefore pronounce their land forfeited. It is 
singular that from such diversity of premises such an uniformity of 
conclusion should have been deduced. 

After the return of the English to the Cape in 1806, disputes 
were continually occurring, and in 1811 the CafFres were driven 
completely out of the Zuurveld. " Up to 1811," says Captain Ait- 
chison, " the CafFres had possession of the whole Albany. In 1811, 
a large force was sent from Cape Town under Colonel Graham, and 
were about a year in clearing that country. A great many lives 
were lost on both sides." 

The same witness states the process of clearing to have been by 
" merely sending in small detachments, and constantly harassing 
the CafFres." 



2! 



The cost of this war of 1811, which was protracted four years, 
was deplorable in all respects ; many hundred lives were lost on 
both sides ; among the rest felllanddrost Stockenstrom, father of the 
Lieutenant-governor of the eastern district, and T'Congo, father of 
the chiefs Pato, Kama and T'Congo. 

It is not easy to calculate exactly the expenses so brought upon 
the Cape Colony, and upon the home Treasury ; but the Com- 
missioners of Inquiry notice the expense of the war of 1811 as a 
great evil ; and as they remark, that peaceful intercourse is endan- 
gered by the troops, so they anticipate saving of money from a peace- 
ful system. 

The results of this war of 1811 were, first, a succession of new 
wars, not less expensive, and more sanguinary than the former ; se- 
cond, the loss of thousands of good labourers to the colonists ; and 
this testimony as to the actual service done by Caffre labourers, 
comprises the strong opinion of Major Dundas, when landdrost in 
1827, as to their good dispositions, and that of Colonel Wade to the 
same effect ; and thirdly, the checking of civilization and trade with 
the interior for a period of 12 years. 

The gain was some hundreds of thousands of acres of land, 
which might have been bought from the natives for comparatively a 
trifle. 

In 1813, it is stated that a " commando, under Colonel Brereton, 
took 30,000 head of cattle from the Caffres : a practice forming 
part of a system to which frequent reference is made in every his- 
tory of our Cape colony transactions. 

The inhabitants of the frontier have, it seems, from the earliest 
times, been accustomed to unite in " armed assemblages, called 
commandos," for the purpose of recovering stolen cattle. The 
system was recognized by the Government, who appointed a field- 
commandant to each district, and a field-cornet to each sub-division 
of the district, 

In 1833 a proclamation of Sir Lowry Cole empowered any field- 
cornet or deputy field-cornet, to whom a boor may complain that 
he had lost cattle, to send a party of soldiers on the track and re- 
cover the cattle. 

It is on evidence, that this mode of recovering cattle is very un- 
certain ; that the cattle are often reported as lost, when they have 
only strayed ; so that, in nine cases out of ten, you punish the in- 
nocent; " and here,'' says Captain Stockenstrom, " lies the great 
evil, for it is the easiest and most lucrative mode of retaliation, yet at 
the same time the most demoralizing." * * * 

The late Commissioner of the frontier, now Lieutenant-governor, 
thus gives his opinion of the working of this system. * * * 

I had then long since made up my mind that the great source of 
misfortune on the frontier, was the system of taking Caffre cattle 
under any circumstances by our patrols, and I shall give my reasons : 
if Caffres steal cattle, very seldom the real perpetrators can be found, 



'22 



unless the man losing the cattle has been on his guard, and sees the 
robbery actually perpetrated, so that he can immediately collect a 
force and pursue the plunderers-, if the cattle be once out of sight of 
the plundered party, there is seldom any getting them again ; our 
patrols are then entirely at the mercy of the statements made by the 
farmers, and they may pretend that they are leading them on the trace 
of the stolen cattle, which may be the trace of any cattle in the world. 
On coming up to the first CafFre kraal, the CafFre*, knowing the pur- 
pose for which the patrol comes, immediately drives his cattle out of 
sight ; we then use force and collect those catVie, and take the number 
said to be stolen, or more: this the CafYres naturally, and as it always 
appeared to me, justly resist; they have nothing else to live on, and 
if the cows be taken away the calves perish, and it is a miserable con- 
dition in which the CafFre women and children, and the whole party, 
are left; that resistance is usually construed into hostility, and it is 
almost impossible then to prevent innocent bloodshed. It also often hap- 
pens that when the patrol is on the spoor [track] of cattle really stolen, 
they find some individual head of cattle which is either knocked up 
or purposely left behind by the real perpetrators, near a kraal, and 
that is taken as a positive proof of the guilt of that kraal, and leads to 
the injustice which I have previously pointed out. There have been 
instances where the farmers have gone into CafFrelaud with a patrol, 
pretending to be on the spoor of stolen cattle, and where cattle were 
taken from the Caffres on the strength of this supposed theft, and on 
returning home he has found his cattle in auother direction, or found 
them destroyed by wolves, or through his own neglect entirely strayed 
away ; and thus men, not losing cattle at all, but coveting Caffre's 
cattle, have nothing more to do but to lead the patrol to a kraal, and 
commit the outrages above described; and the Caffres have frequently 
told me, " We do not care how many Caffres you shoot if they come 
into your country, and you catch them stealing, but for every cow 
you take from our country you make a thief." This I know to be 
the case, and though I am aware that it is an unpopular view of the 
question, I must persist that as long as Caffre cattle be taken, peace 
on the frontier is utterly impossible. 

1005. Then do you attribute the disturbances, which have so con- 
stantly prevailed on the frontiers, and the acts of severity which we 
have been obliged to inflict occasionally, and the backward state of 
improvement of the natives, and the necessity of maintaining a large 
military force on the frontiers, to this cause ; namely, the seizure of 
Caffre cattle, for cattle stolen or pretended to be stolen from the 
colonists ? — Decidedly. 

1006. You think that is the great source of these evils ? — Certainh . 

1007. And the great source of expense to Government in keeping 
up a sufficient military force on the frontier? — Yes, decidedly; it 
leads to this, that when cattle are taken, those from whom they are 
taken have nothing else to live on ; they consequently try to keep 
possession and defend themselves : this is " resistance we then use 
violence, they are shot, and at last comes war, and war without end. 

1013. Do you think we can have a system of peace and tranquillity, 
and the introduction of civilization among the natives, so long as this 
system of seizing their cattle continues 2 — Decidedly not; they can- 
not be quiet, the people must eat. 

1014. Do you think it is in vain to attempt to civilize and chris- 
tianize them as long as this system of plundering them of their cattle 



23 



continues? — Yes, it is in vain to attempt to civilize and christianize, 
if people have nothing to eat. 

1015. Did you represent to the Government that the continuance of 
this system would render it necessary for the Government to annex 
the Caffreland to our dominions ? — In both my statements which are 
before the Committee, it will be found that "almost the very words 
were used long before any of the late outrages began. As a natural 
consequence of our commando in ISIS, followed the expulsion of the 
Caffres, and the seizure of the ceded territory. We will go from one 
line to another, and we will take one slice of the country after 
another, and as long as you continue to take the people's cattle, so 
long will this take place, and you will go from river to river till you 
get to Delagoa Bay. 

But we return to the history. In 1817 we entered into a treaty 
with Gaika, a Caffre chief of importance, but not, as we chose, or 
as a witness expresses it, "wished," to consider him, paramount 
sovereign, to punish the depredations of the other chiefs, one of 
whom, T'Slambie, soon after quarrelled with Gaika. We took part 
with Gaika, and defeated his enemies, of whom a great number 
were slain, and we brought off an immense drove of cattle, which 
we divided with our ally. This involved us in the more serious war 
of 1819, when the Caffres, whom we had plundered in the pre- 
ceding year, made a desperate incursion into the colony. They 
were driven back with slaughter, and we then demanded of Gaika 
a large portion of Caffreland, for no reason that can be discovered, 
except that he failed in preventing the incursion, though he was 
then our ally, and aided us in repelling it. * 

We thus pushed our boundary line to the Keiskamma, taking in 
about 2,000 square miles more. This tract was at first to be called 
neutral territory, but it soon came to bear the name of ceded terri- 
tory, although the mode of cession was somewhat questionable. 
Gaika himself did not profess to have the entire disposal of the 
lands he thus surrendered ; the right was disputed by the chiefs of 
his own nation, and the treaty was merely verbal, and consigned to 
the memory of the parties alone ; but in those days, as a witness 
observed, a discussion with the Caffres was not treated with much 
formality. ****** 

It should be noticed, that in this treaty Gaika expressly reserved 
for the Caffres the basin of the Chumie, which became afterwards a 
point of further contention. * * * 

The next fact that strikes us is the statement of Captain Atchison : 
" The chief, Macomo, upon representing the hardship of his being 
removed out of the country and giving up the Kat River, which was 
formerly his, was allowed to return again ; but many robberies had 
been committed by his people, and traced to his kraals or huts. In 
1822 or 1823 a large force, in which I was employed, surprised 
these kraals in the middle of the night, and we took from them 
7,000 beasts." 



We also find other records of commandos of the colony, and in 
1826 it is admitted that one of these attacked by mistake the kraal 
of Botman. 

Still Macomo remained, as it was said, on sufferance; but in 
1829 an attack of Macomo's upon the Tambookies was the occa- 
sion or the pretext of his expulsion. Macomo alleged that he had 
done nothing to deserve the displeasure of the British Government. 
But it is not our design to defend his treatment of the Tambookies. 
His expulsion, however, seems to have been a measure of severity, 
as described by a witness by no means favourable to Macomo, and 
to have remained a lasting grievance in his mind. * * 

The banks of the Chumie were still left in the possession of the 
Caffres, and their next remove was from thence. 

In 1833, before Sir Lowry Cole left the colony, he had given 
orders for removing Tyalie and his people from the Muncassanna ; 
he was accordingly removed, but by an error, as Colonel Wade 
says, not placed beyond the boundary. To remedy this error, 
Colonel Wade, without consulting the frontier authorities, gave 
order for a further removal, which must have appeared to the 
Caffres, who had submitted quietly to the first order, an unac- 
countable decree. 

On this affair we would remark, that the actual boundary was at 
least a disputed point, few authentic witnesses remaining ; but there 
were two persons, who, from their station, must be regarded as com- 
petent to speak to the point, and they, without communication, 
concur in declaring that the Chumie basin (the tract in question, 
as we believe) had been reserved for the Caffres. These are Cap- 
tain Stockenstrom, who, in his account of the treaty, says, as we 
have seen, that Gaika did stipulate that his family should keep the 
Chumie basin; and Macomo, who, in a letter written in 1833, 
says, that " I have lived peaceably with my people west of the 
Chumie river, ever since I have been allowed by Stockenstrom and 
Somerset to live there in my own country." 

Whatever may be the opinions of our witnesses on this and on 
other particulars of our border policy, on one point we observe they 
are all agreed, in condemning and in lamenting its fickleness and 
inutility. 

This vacillation may be explicable, perhaps, to ourselves, who 
are aware of the variety of men and opinions concerned in the ad- 
ministration of affairs, and of the contradictory representations 
liable to be made at a remote seat of government; but, as Lord 
Glenelg has justly observed, to the natives our proceedings must 
often have assumed an appearance of caprice, and of a confusion 
perfectly unintelligible. In no case has this vacillation been more 
awkwardly exemplified than in the further transactions with Ma- 
como, thus stated by Captain R. S. Aitchison : — 

115. Have you ever been employed in removing any of the Caffre 



25 



tribes out of the neutral territory ? — I have : in November 1833 I was 
ordered to remove Macomo, Botman and Tyalie, beyond the boun- 
dary, which I did. 

116. Who was the commandant of the frontier at that time? — 
Colonel England, of the 75th ; Colonel Somerset having gone on leave 
to England. 

117. Who was the governor? — The acting governor was Colonel 
Wade; after Sir Lowry Cole's departure, and before Sir Benjamin 
D'Urban arrived, Colonel Wade was acting governor. 

118. Will you state what took place when you were ordered to re- 
move Macomo and Tyalie ? — Colonel England sent for me (I was 
absent about 30 miles from Graham's-town), and stated that he had 
received from Cape-town orders to remove those chiefs beyond the 
boundary, and that I was named for that duty. He then, as I had 
been a long time in the country and understood these matters per- 
fectly, asked me the policy of that step, and we agreed that as it was 
the time of the year when the Caffre corn and pumpkins were in a 
forward state, that if this could be put off for a few months it would 
be an act of charity towards the Caffres. Viewing it as I did, he did 
not act upon the order, but by the post of the following day wrote to 
say that such being the case, he had submitted again the policy of 
allowing the Caffres to remain until they had reaped their harvest, 
and hoped it would be approved of by the governor. By return of 
post, which was about 14 days from that date, a peremptory order 
arrived for the removal of the Caffres. I was named and ordered to 
repair to Fort Willshire, to take upon myself the command of that 
post, and to superintend the clearing of the country. The force that 
was then put under my charge was quite inadequate to effect this pur- 
pose by force. I sent for Macomo and for Botman, and as I had 
known them many years, I told them, and in fact they expressed 
great confidence, knowing that I had never deceived them in any way 
whatever, and never promised them that which I could not perform. 
I sent for them and explained the case. At first they refused posi- 
tively to go : I then pointed out as well as I could the absurdity of 
objecting to go. Macomo said he knew very well that I could not 
force him ; I said of course that I must do it, but that if he would go 
quietly and advise all his people to do the same, Colonel Somerset 
might be expected very shortly and also the new governor, and that 
his good behaviour on this occasion would insure him my support, 
and that I would not fail, if he went quietly, to mention his conduct 
to both when they arrived. After many hours, I may say almost, of 
needless conversation upon the subject, he at last said that he would 
believe me, and would go. I gave him two days to complete the 
evacuation of the country, and then I went with the whole force I had, 
and did not find a single Caffre. 

119. Had they left any property? — All the corn, which was quite 
green, all the gardens, and all the pumpkins, and every thing was left; 
no animals were left. 

122. In this conversation that you had with Macomo, did he claim 
his right to stay? — No ; but he distinctly said, which we found out 
afterwards to be the case, that he could not make out the cause of his 
removal, and asked me if I would tell him ; and I really could not : 
I had heard nothing, no cause was ever assigned to me for the removal ; 
and moreover I met a boor who lived close to where Macomo was, and 
he said, "Pray what are you removing these people for?" I said, 



26 



" My orders are to do so." He said, " I am very sorry for it, for I have 
never lost, so long as they have been here, a single beast ; they have 
even recovered beasts for me." 

125. Then Macomo behaved, in this interview between you and him, 
very well? — At first, as may be supposed, he was very violent; the 
man was very much irritated. I could not assign any reason why he 
was ordered to be removed; and he absolutely stated, " I will allow 
you to inquire at Fort Wiltshire, whether or not I have not sent in 
horses and cattle re-captured from other Caffres, which had been stolen 
from the colony." 

131 Did you see any instance of great distress amongst them'? — 
Unfortunately it so happened for them that it was a particularly dry- 
season ; the grass, which generally is very abundant, was very scarce 
indeed, and also water ; and they were driven out of a country that 
was both better for water and grass than the one they were removed 
to, which was already thickly inhabited. They took me over the coun- 
try they were to inhabit, and I assure you there was not a morsel of 
grass upon it more than there is in this room ; it was as bare as a 
parade. 

132. On Colonel Somerset's return from England, was there any 
permission given to Macomo and his followers to return? — I men- 
tioned to Colonel Somerset on his return, what I had told Macomo ; I 
considered it my duty to do so, and he either obtained or gave the 
Caffres permission to re-occupy the ground from which I had driven 
them. 

149. As to Macomo's tribe, did they reap the benefit of that harvest 
when they returned in January? — No, I think not ; the corn would 
not be ripe till March. 

150. You suppose the whole of that was lost? — A great part of that. 

151. They came in February ? — Yes. 

152. When were they driven out? — By return of post. Colonel 
Somerset allowed them to come in, and, upon a representation to the 
civil commissioners, they were ordered back again. 

In what light, may we again ask, must these changes have ap- 
peared to the Caffres, removed without cause assigned from their 
huts and springing corn in November 1833 — restored in February 
1834 — sent away again by return of post — in the same year, as we 
shall see, allowed to resettle themselves — and again ejected.* 

We might find cause for regret in these changes, if only on the 



* Sir Benjamin D'Urban thus speaks of the November expulsion : 
— "-For many years past the tribes of the chiefs Macomo, Bothman 
and Tyalie, had been allowed by the colonial government to reside and 
graze their cattle immediately within (on the western side of) the 
River Keiskamma, upon the Gaga, Chumie and Muncassana. In the 
November of the last year the acting governor, under the impression 
that this indulgence had been abused (which probably it might have 
been to a certain extent), ordered their immediate expulsion from the 
whole of that line, and they were expelled accordingly. This unfor- 
tunately happened when a period of severe drought was approaching; 
so that these tribes, I am afraid, but too certainly suffered much loss 
in their herds in consequence." — Despatch, 28th Oct. 1834?; Cape 
Papers, Part II. 1835, No. 252, p. 103. 



■2 7 



ground of the fickleness of policy which they exhibit, but when we 
couple with them the fact mentioned by Mr. Gisborne, that one 
only of these removals had produced in the minds not only of the 
chiefs immediately concerned, but in that of Hintza, feelings of dis- 
trust and irritation, we cannot but consider these repetitions of the 
grievance as one of the principal causes of the calamity which has 
befallen the colony. Of the last scene of removal, Colonel Wade 
was witness on the 21st October, 1834. He says, that "at this 
time, they had been returned about a month, had built their huts, 
established their cattle-kraals, and commenced the cultivation of 
their gardens." He states that, together with Colonel Somer- 
set, he made a visit to Macomo and Botman's kraal, across the 
Keiskamma, and that Macomo rode back with them, when they 
had recrossed the river and reached the Omkobina, a tributary of 
the Chumie. " These valleys were swarming with Caffres, as was 
the whole country in our front, as far as the Gaga; the people 
were all in motion, carrying off their effects, and driving away their 
cattle towards the drifts of the river, and to my utter amazement, 
the whole country around and before us was in a blaze. Presently 
we came up with a strong patrol of the mounted rifle corps, which 
had, it appeared, come out from Fort Beaufort that morning ; the 
soldiers were busily employed in burning the huts and driving the 
Caffres towards the frontier." 

The further procedures with the Caffres are thus described : — 

The second time of my leaving Caffreland was in October, last year, 
in company with a gentleman, who was to return towards Hantam. 
We passed through the country of the Gaga, at 10 o'clock at night •, 
the Caffres were enjoying themselves after their custom, with their 
shouting, feasting and midnight dances ; they allowed us to pass on un- 
molested. Some time after 1 received a letter from the gentleman who 
was my travelling companion on that night, written just before the 
breaking out of the Caffre war; in it he says, ' 4 You recollect how 
joyful the Caffres were when we crossed the Gaga; but on my return 
a dense smoke rilled all the vales, and the Caffres were seen lurking 
here and there behind the Mimosa; a patrol, commanded by an officer, 
was driving them beyond the colonial boundary. (This piece of coun- 
try has very lately been claimed by the colony.) I saw one man near 
me, and I told my guide to call him to me : the poor fellow said, 
' No, I cannot come nearer ; that white man looks too much like a 
soldier;' and ail our persuasions could not induce him to advance 
near us.' ' Look,' said he, pointing to the ascending columns of 
smoke, ' what the white men are doing.' Their huts and folds were 
all burned. When the boors cross the northern boundary, you hear 
the civil commissioner and Colonel Bell saying the drought compels 
them to intrude into the country of the Griquas. I suppose boors are 
men, Caffres are beasts, or why not use the same argument for all 
classes of our fellow-men ]" Thus much of this gentleman's letter, 
upon whose veracity I can implicitly depend. It was about this 
period that the case of the Caffre Goube came on, when the magistrate 
of Graham's-town, awarded to a Caffre 50 lashes on his bare back, 
and an imprisonment of two months, " for resisting a serjeant in the 



28 



execution of his duty," such being the civil charge, as may be seen in 
the records of the magistrates' court of Graham's-town.* The poor 
Caffre being a subject of Macomo's, had, as it appears in evidence, 
built his hut on the part of the neutral territory, so called, probably 
the Gaga. The serjeant being about to set fire to the hut, the Caffre 
is said to have threatened opposition ; he afterwards went through 
the Caffreland, showing his wounded back to his countrymen, and 
calling down their vengeance. Numerous were the instances of com- 
mandos or patrols, of which I heard when in Caffreland, carrying off 
the cattle of the Caffres, burning their huts, besides the misconduct of 
the traders and farmers. 

Of the previous state of the country, and its appearance at the 
time we are speaking of, Dr. Philip says : — 

In passing through Albany and the neutral territory in the end of 
August or the beginning of September, the scenes where their depre- 
dations were said to have taken place, I made particular inquiry after 
the boors and settlers who could not send their cattle and herds with- 
out sending armed men to defend them ; and I endeavoured to ascer- 
tain where the hordes of Caffres were said to be within the colony 
harassing the military, and, in spite of them, committing unparalleled 
outrages ; but I met with none who had either seen or heard of such 
things. Herds of cattle and horses were seen wandering in different 
directions, some of them attended by herdsmen without any arms, and 
others of these herds without any one appearing to look after them. 
Everything within the colony wore the aspect of peace; and the prin- 
cipal things which seemed to occupy the people's minds,-were the emi- 
gration of the boors beyond the frontier, and the expectation that 
when the Governor came to the frontier he would grant them new 
farms beyond the limits of the colony. We heard in every direction 
that the patrols had been very active ; and on approaching the Caffre 
frontier the first thing which struck my travelling companions and 
myself was a patrol coming out of Caffreland. During the two weeks 
I spent at the Kat River, I was constantly hearing of patrols driving 
the Caffres over the Chumie, burning their huts, and going into Caf- 
freland to bring out cattle said to have been stolen. Having re- 
mained at Kat River about a fortnight, I went into Caffreland, ac- 
companied by Captain Bradford, J. H. Tredgold, esq. and the Rev. 
Mr. Read. We spent about a fortnight in the Caffre country, and in 
every part that we visited we found the Caffres in a state of continual 
alarm ; and we seldom met a few of them together but one or the 
other of them had to tell us how they had been ruined by the patrols. 
It was truly heartrending to listen to their complaints, and the com- 
plaints of the men were almost forgotten in the distress of the women 
and children, who were literally perishing, being stricken through 
for want of the fruits of the field and the milk that had been the means 
of their support, their cows having been carried away by the patrols. 

Having visited the missionary stations of Lovedale, Burn's-hill and 
the Buffalo River, I returned by way of Knapp's-hill, the missionary 
station of the Rev. Mr. Kayser, which was on Macomo's ground, and 
near his kraal. There we met with several of the Caffre chiefs who had 
been invited to meet me there ; namely, Macomo, Botman, Kama, and 
Tzatzo. We had a public meeting, which occupied the greater part 
of a day, and at which there was much speaking. My sole object on 



29 



that occasion was to procure any additional information for the Go- 
vernor which I could obtain. I stated to them that I had come among 
them as their friend ; I neither was in fact, nor appeared to them to 
be, in any other character. In reply to the remarks which the chiefs 
made about their sufferings, I stated that I hoped the Governor would 
soon be on the frontier, and that I had reason to think he was a just 
man, and would redress any real grievances of which they might have 
to complain. I told them at the same time, that they mnst not expect 
anything more than was reasonable from his Excellency ; that he was 
obliged to protect the colonists from any depredations that might be 
committed on them by the Caffres, and that any future plan that 
might be proposed to the chiefs by the Governor would necessarily 
embrace the restoration of cattle stolen from the colonists by the 
Caffres, and other things of a similar nature. 

I found the Caffres reasonable, and I had not the least doubt that 
had the Governor gone to the frontier at the time I was there, they 
would have embraced the plan he had to propose for the peaceable 
settlement of the frontier affairs with transports of joy. Having stated 
rather strongly the necessity the chiefs would be under of preventing 
all stealing from the colony as the condition of any peaceable rela- 
tions the Governor might enter into with them, Botman made the fol- 
lowing reply : " The Governor cannot be so unreasonable as to make 
our existence as a nation depend upon a circumstance which is be- 
yond the reach of hnman power. Is it in the power of any Governor 
to prevent his people stealing from each other? Have you not within 
the colony, magistrates, policemen, prisons, whipping-posts and 
gibbets; and do you not perceive that in spite of all these means to 
make your people honest, that your prisons continue full, and that 
you have constant employment for your magistrates, policemen and 
hangmen, wittiout being able to keep down your colonial thieves and 
cheats ? A thief is a wolf ; he belongs to no society, and yet is the 
pest and bane of all societies. You have your thieves, and we have 
thieves among us ; but we cannot, as chiefs, extirpate the thieves of 
Caffreland, more than we can extirpate the wolves, or you can extir- 
pate the thieves of the colony. There is, however, this difference be- 
tween us : we discountenance thieves in Caffreland, and prevent, as 
far as possible, our people stealing from the colony ; but you counte- 
nance the robbery of your people upon the Caffres, by the sanction 
you give to the injustice of the patrol system. Our people have stolen 
your cattle, but you have, by the manner by which you have refunded 
your loss, punished the innocent ; and after having taken our country 
from us, without even a shadow of justice, and shut us up to starva- 
tion, you threaten us with destruction for the thefts of those to whom 
you left no choice but to steal or die by famine." 

My last interview with the chiefs took place in the beginning of 
October 1834. After this interview, I returned to the Kat River, 
where I waited, expecting daily the arrival of the Governor. Finding 
that he delayed his proposed journey, and that I had no certainty as 
to the time of his arrival on the frontier, I drew up a document, com- 
municating additional information, and at the same time laying before 
Sir Benjamin the principle on which it was necessary to base the sys- 
tem of international law proposed to be introduced. Finding that I 
could not wait longer for his Excellency on the frontier, I wrote a 
letter to him, in which I stated that circumstance, assigning my rea- 
sons for leaving Caffreland at that period ; and as he was daily ex- 



30 



pected in Graham's Town, the above document, with the letter in 
question, I forwarded to Graham's Town, to be put into the hands of 
his Excellency on his arrival there, that he might see them before he 
went into Caffreland. 

I then left Kat River on the 4th of November, by way of the Man- 
kassana and Gaga. On a ridge which separates these two districts, I 
met several parties of Caffres. Goobie, a Caffre, who had been im- 
prisoned and flogged at Graham's Town by order of the civil magis- 
trate, had returned to that neighbourhood ; and one of the first ques- 
tions asked me was, what right the English Government had to punish 
the subject of a Caffre chief? I was assured by the people then around 
me, that it was the first example of a Caffre ever having been flogged ; 
that the man cpuld never again lift up his head in society ; that it 
would have been better had he been shot dead ; and that when the 
Governor should arrive among them, he would hear of it from every 
tongue in Caffreland, as one of the greatest indignities that could have 
been offered to their nation. I said everything in my power to soothe 
them ; but no people can have a keener sense of injustice in cases 
where they themselves are the sufferers, or can be more alive to what 
they deem national affronts, than the Caffres are ; and I found that 
any argument I used to quiet their minds tended only to increase the 
excitement to which this circumstance had given rise. Some of the 
Caffres asserted that the man was arrested on what was till then con- 
sidered Caffre territory ; but this is a circumstance of small conse- 
quence ; he was the subject of a Caffre prince, and he had only lifted 
his hand to protect his hut, and his wife and child, who were in it. 

Leaving the Mankassana, I proceeded along the western edge of 
the Chumie Basin, and during a ride of perhaps 20 miles, I did not 
find a single Caffre kraal or hut which had not been burnt or other- 
wise destroyed by the military. Immediately above Fort Willshire, 
and below the junction of the Chumie and Keiskamma Rivers, I saw 
with my own eyes the kraals and huts of the Caffres burning. This 
was on ground that was of use to no one. It was on the boundary of 
the neutral ground (within the territory which goes by that name), 
and at a great distance from any colonists. The people were sitting 
in small groups looking at their burning habitations. Being asked 
why they did not go over the river, they said there was no grass on the 
other side, and they might as well perish by the patrols as by famine ; 
they added, that the patrols who fired their kraals and huts had in- 
formed them, that the next day every one of them was to be driven 
over the river at the point of the bayonet. 

On the 5th of November, the day after I left Kat River, I halted 
near Fort Willshire, about mid-day. Macomo, hearing that I was 
there, came to the place, accompanied with about 20 of his men. 
They remained with me about two hours. On his way he called at 
Fort Willshire, where he was reminded of a demand which had been 
made upon him a short time before by Colonel Somerset for 480 head 
of cattle, said to be due to the colony. The chief stated in reply to 
that demand, that there were no colonial cattle among his people ; 
that he had always been ready, whenever cattle had been stolen from 
the colony, and reported to him, to recover them ; that in the course 
of a year he had sent back a great number he had recaptured from 
Caffres that did not belong to them. Colonel Somerset had still urged 
that the 490 head of cattle were to be demanded, adding that he had 
orders from the Governor to make this demand, but the Governor was 



31 



not willing to use force till he knew whether Macomo would comply 
with the demand or not. To this the chief replied, that he could only 
repeat what he had before said, that he had done everything in his 
power to recover cattle said to have been stolen from the colony ; that 
he would be answerable for his own people, but that he could not be 
answerable for cattle stolen by vagabond Caffres in the bushes. Hav- 
ing given this reply, and being conscious that he had done everything 
in his power, and seeing no end to the demands made upon him, he 
received this last demand as a proof that his ruin was resolved upon ; 
for he had just been told at Fort Willshire that a commando was about 
to enter his country to take the 480 head of cattle, and this threat 
seemed to add greatly to his distress. The chief then entered upon 
further detail of his grievances, and declared that it was impossible 
for human nature to endure what he had to suffer from the patrol sys- 
tem. I reasoned with him, and did all in my power to impress upon 
his mind the importance of maintaining peace with the colony. I 
stated again that I had reason to believe that the Governor, when he 
came to the frontier, would listen to all his grievances, and treat him 
with justice and generosity. 44 These promises," he replied, "we 
have had for the last 15 years ;" and, pointing to the huts then burn- 
ing, he added, " things are becoming worse : these huts were set on fire 
last night, and we were told that to-morrow the patrol is to scour the 
whole district, and drive every Caffre from the west side of the Chumie 
and Keiskamma at the point of the bayonet." He asked to what ex- 
tent endurance was to be carried ? and my reply was, " If they drive 
away your people at the point of the bayonet, advise them to go over 
the Keiskamma peaceably ; if they come and take away cattle, suffer 
them to do it without resistance ; if they burn your huts, allow them 
to do so ; if they shoot your men, bear it till the Governor come ; and 
then represent your grievances to him, and I am convinced you will 
have no occasion to repent of having followed my advice. He was 
deeply affected, and the last words he said to me were, (grasping my 
hand,) " I will try what 1 can do." 

These events bring us to the breaking out of the late war. On 
this most important subject we abstain from entering. Though 
much evidence has been laid before us, and many circumstances ap- 
pearing therein have excited our deep regret, (amongst the most 
painful of which we may allude to the death of the Caffre Prince 
Hintza,) yet as the evidence on this head has not been completed, 
and as the events are so recent, we have been led to the belief that 
an analysis of the statements already before us might not be con- 
sidered either impartial or conclusive : we therefore waive the inves- 
tigation. It is sufficient to express our opinion, that the system 
which has long been pursued in our intercourse with the natives of 
South Africa has been productive of most injurious effects both to 
the colonists and the Caffres, exposing the former to constant inse- 
curity and frequent severe suffering and loss, and subjecting the 
latter to great injustice, and to treatment which could not fail to 
occasion feelings of irritation and hostility. 

We look upon the late war as one among many illustrations of 
these evils. While we purposely abstain from dwelling upon the 
circumstances which immediately produced it, we, without hesita- 



32 



tioB, name its real, though perhaps remote cause — it was the syste- 
matic forgetfulness of the principles of justice in our treatment of 
the native possessors of the soil. 

That any substantial benefit can accrue from border conflicts, 
either to the British or the Caffre nation, may well be questioned. 
What has either party gained by recent hostilities ? It is proved 
that both have sustained immense detriment — civilization has been 
retarded ; commerce has been interrupted ; the vanquished party has 
endured immense loss in property, in territory and in life ;* and the 
victorious nation, besides suffering 1 in all these particulars, has in- 
curred an actual outlay of money far more than commensurate to 
the value of the territory acquired. The cost of this war to the 
British nation is estimated at 241,8847. 14s. 8%d. 

With respect, however, to this part of our investigation, we wish 
it to be understood, that it is not against individuals, much less 
against the colonists or the military as bodies, that we would direct 
our reprehension ; we are convinced that a large proportion of both 
are well and kindly disposed towards the natives : but it is the sys- 
tem that has been permitted to prevail in the colony, which, in our 
opinion, requires a complete alteration ; a system which puts it into 
the power of the few who are rash, reckless or greedy, to hazard the 
peace and the welfare of the whole community. We are aware that 
the results of a long system of erroneous policy are not to be reme- 
died without much time and patience, and we fear that the weight 
of the calamity which it has produced has in many instances fallen 
on those of our colonists who have least merited it ; but we enter- 
tain a confident hope that, by the measures which have been lately 
adopted and recommended by the Government, peace and harmony 
between us and our neighbours may be restored and established on 
a sure and lasting basis ; and it is chiefly to the enlightened princi- 
ples, and to the just directions of the head of our Colonial Depart- 
ment, exemplified as they are in his late despatches before us, and 
to laws embodying and carrying into effect those directions and 
principles, that we look for this happy accomplishment of our de- 
sires. Thus much at least is sufficiently obvious, as has been stated 
by Sir Benjamin D'Urban in his despatch to Mr. Secretary Rice, of 
28th of October 1834, "that a complete and effectual reformation 
of our system of proceeding with the native tribes (if that may be 
called a system which seems to have been guided by no fixed prin- 
ciples, certainly by no just one) had become absolutely necessary." 



* This consisted in the slaughter of 4,000 of their warriors, or fight- 
ing men. " There have been taken from them also, besides the con- 
quest and alienation of their country, about 60,000 head of cattle, al- 
most all their goats — their habitations everywhere destroyed and their 
gardens and corn-fields laid waste." — Sir B. D'Urban to Lord Glen- 
elg. November 1835. 



33 



We can hardly leave the subject of South Africa 
and its wrongs, without noticing two very gratifying- 
facts of recent occurrence, the one, that Lord Glenelg 
has ordered the restoration to the CafTres of a consi- 
derable tract of territory of which they had been un- 
justly deprived : and the other, that he has appointed as 
Lieutenant-governor of the eastern part of the colony, 
and in fact as protector of the natives, Captain Stock- 
enstrom, a man whose chief merit in the eyes of our 
Government, and his chief offence in those of the colo- 
nists, appears to have been his zealous maintenance of 
the rights of the African Aborigines. 

Effects of Fair Dealing, combined with Christian Instruction, on 

Aborigines. 

In the foregoing survey we have seen the desolating effects of the 
association of unprincipled Europeans with nations in a ruder 
state. 

There remains a more gratifying subject to which we have now to 
direct our attention — the effect of fair dealing and of Christian in- 
struction upon heathens. The instances are unhappily less nu- 
merous than those of an opposite character, but they are not less 
conclusive ; and in reviewing the evidence before us, we find proof 
that every tribe of mankind is accessible to this remedial process, 
and that it has actually been partially applied, and its benefits ex- 
perienced in every quarter of the world, so that the main feature of 
the case before us being the ravages caused by Europeans, enough 
has been incidentally disclosed to show that those nations which 
have been exposed to our contamination might, during the same 
period, have been led forward to religion and civilization. Inde- 
pendently of the obligations of conscience to impart the blessings 
we enjoy, we have had abundant proof that it is greatly for our ad- 
vantage to have dealings with civilized men rather than with bar- 
barians. Savages are dangerous neighbours and unprofitable cus- 
tomers, and if they remain as degraded denizens of our colonies, 
they become a burthen upon the State. 

We have next to express our conviction that there is but one ef- 
fectual means of staying the evils we have occasioned, and of im- 
parting the blessings of civilization, and that is, the propagation of 
Christianity, together with the preservation, for the time to come, 
of the civil rights of the natives. * * * * 

We further find, in the evidence before us, that benevolent at- 

D 



34 



tempts have been made to instruct savages in the arts of civilized 
life, for the purpose of improving their condition, and gradually pre- 
paring them for the truths of the Gospel, and that these attempts 
have been signally unsuccessful. 

The cause of this failure is explained by Mr. Beecham. 

The higher motives of the gospel must be brought to bear upon the 
mind of the savage ; he must be made to feel the importance of the 
truths of religion before he will discover anything desirable in the 
quietness and sobriety of civilized life, or will dare to break through 
his superstitions in order to subdue it. 

I was aware that the Governor of Upper Canada had made many 
attempts to induce the Indians to renounce their wandering life, and I 
wished to ascertain from the chief himself what were his views of the 
endeavours made by the Governor in their behalf, and how it was 
that they failed. He said the fact was simply this, that the offers of 
the Governor had no charms for them ; they could see nothing in 
civilized life sufficiently attractive to induce them to give up their 
former mode of living for the sake of it. He told me that they gave 
the Governor credit for very kind and benevolent intentions ; yet, in 
answer to all his applications, while they thanked him for his kind 
intentions, they uniformly told him that they preferred their own 
mode of living to that followed by Europeans. This again was the 
case with the Indians who are situated in the neighbourhood of the 
river St. Clair. The Governor made several attempts to induce them 
also to renounce their wandering habits, and devote themselves to 
civilized pursuits ; but they also refused, arguing in the following 
strain : " Who knows but the Munedoos (gods) would be angry with 
us for abandoning our own ways T' and concluded by saying, " We 
wish our great father, the Governor, to be informed that we feel 
thankful to him for his good will towards us, but cannot accept of his 
kind offers." It is true that, after some time, one of the tribes so far 
acceeded to the Governor's proposals as to consent that he should 
build them some houses. He built a small number for their use, but 
it was altogether a fruitless experiment ; the Indians only occupied 
them occasionally as they used their own huts, without any reference 
to the comforts or pursuits of civilized life. I have here a letter from 
the chief himself in his own hand-writing, in which he says, in re- 
ference to the attempts that had thus been made to promote civilization 
without Christianity, " I have heard of no instance in this part of the 
country, where the plan of first civilizing the heathen Indians ever 
succeeded." * * * * 

So complete indeed has been the failure of the merely civilizing 
plan with various tribes of Indians, that intelligent Americans have 
been led to adopt the conclusion, that it is necessary to banish the 
Indians from the neighbourhood of the white population, on the 
supposition that they are not capable of being reclaimed or elevated 
into a civilized or well-ordered community. 

This was not the opinion of William Penn, whose conduct to- 
wards the Indians lias been deservedly held up as a model for legis- 
lators, and who, " notwithstanding he purchased their lands" by 



35 



an equitable treaty, " did not desire their removal," but-" admitted 
them to full participation in the benefit and protection of the laws," 
and who also took pains to promote their religious instruction, and 
to render the intercourse with their white brethren beneficial to 
them. That the good which he contemplated has been frustrated 
by many untoward circumstances, we are aware ; but we do not 
therefore doubt the feasibility of producing a permanent impression 
upon uncivilized men. We consider that the true plan to be pur- 
sued is that which we find thus recommended by the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, in their instructions to two of their emissaries. " In 
connexion with the preaching of the Gospel, you will not overlook 
its intimate bearing on the moral habits of a people. One effect, 
arising from its introduction into a country is, the ' beating the 
sword into a ploughshare and the spear into a pruning-hook.' Seek 
then to apply it to the common occupation of life ; and instead of 
waiting to civilize them before you instruct them in the truths of the 
Gospel, or to convert them before you aim at the improvement of 
their temporal condition, let the two objects be pursued simul- 
taneously." 

The Governors of the Canadas, as we find in their despatches, 
seem to have been brought to the conviction that religious instruc- 
tion and the influence of missionaries would be the most likely 
means of improving their condition, and, eventually, of relieving 
the Government from the expense of the Indian department. Both 
Sir James Kempt and Sir J. Colbourne advise the sending of mis- 
sionaries among them. 

A remarkable instance of the power of the gospel in reclaiming 
savages has been afforded by the Mississaguas and Chippeways, the 
very Indians who had, as we have seen, rejected civilization, and 
who were notorious for drunkenness and debauchery. 

Their improvement began with their conversion : " as soon as 
they were converted, they perceived the evils attendant upon their 
former ignorant wandering state ; they began to work, which they 
never did before ; they perceived the advantage of cultivating the 
soil; they totally gave up drinking, to which they had been strongly 
attached ; they became industrious, sober and useful." 

The Bishop of Quebec writes, — 

The Methodist Society have been very successful in converting a 
great portion of the Mississagua tribe from heathen ignorance and im- 
moral habits to Christian faith and practice ; and this improvement 
has been so great and rapid within these few years, that the hand of 
God seems to be visible in it; and it must be acknowledged that they 
have done much in the work of their civilization. An extraordinary 
reformation and conversion to Christianity has taken place in this 
tribe within a few years. It commenced on the river Credit, and has 
extended to various settlements of the nation to a considerable dis- 
tance. A great proportion of the tribe have become sober and indus- 

d 2 



36 



trious in their habits, well clad as to their persons, and religious in 
their life and conversation. 

Mr. Magrath also mentions that they no longer desire the gifts of trin- 
kets and gaudy coloured clothes, in which they formerly delighted, 
in lieu of which they request twine, for the purpose of making fish- 
ing-nets for the Lake Ontario, The half-caste chief Kahkewa- 
quonaby, generally known by the name of Peter Jones, in an- 
swer to the question, whether the Chippeways, on embracing the 
gospel, did not immediately apply themselves to civilized pursuits, 
says, 

This has uniformly been the case with all the tribes that have 
embraced the gospel. Immediately on their conversion, they have 
applied to the Governor and missionaries for assistance, to enable 
them to settle down in villages, and attend to the things that make 

for their present happiness as well as their spiritual welfare. Their 
language is, " Give us missionaries to tell us about the words of the 
Great Spirit ; give us schools, that our children may be taught to read 
the Bible ; give us oxen to work with, and men to show us how to 
work our farms." To the question whether the Christain Chippeways 
have not made considerable advancement in civilization? — The im- 
provement the Christian Indians have made, has been the astonish- 
ment of all who knew them in their pagan state. The change for the 
better has not only extended in their hearts, views, and feelings, but 
also in their personal appearance, and in their domestic and social con- 
dition. Formerly they were in a wandering state, living in wigwams, 
and depending on the chase for subsistence. The Christian Chippe- 
ways are settled at the following places, viz. River Credit, Grape Is- 
land, Rice Lake, Mud Lake, Lake Simcoe, Cold Water, Muncey Town, 
River St. Clair (Wawanosh's tribe,) and Sahgeeng. At each of these 
places they have made more or less progress in civilization, according 
to the advantages they enjoyed. The River Credit Mission being the 
oldest station among the Chippeways, I will give you an account of 
their present temporal condition. About ten years ago this people 
had no houses, no fields, no horses, no cattle, no pigs, no poultry. Each 
person could carry all he possessed on his back, without being much 
burthened. They are now occupying about 40 comfortable houses, 
most of which are built of hewn logs, and a few of frame. They are 
generally one-and-a-half story high, and about 24 feet long and 18 
feet wide, with stone or brick chimneys ; two or three rooms in each 
house ; their furniture consists of tables, chairs, bedsteads, straw mat- 
tresses, a few feather beds, window-curtains, boxes and trunks for their 
wearing apparel, small shelves fastened against the wall for their 
books, closets for their cooking utensils, cup-boards for their plates, 
cups, saucers, knives, and forks. Some have clocks and watches. 
They have no carpets ; but a few have mats laid on their floors. This 
tribe own a saw-mill, a work-shop, a blacksmith's shop, and a ware- 
house, the property of the whole community. They have about 200 
acres of land under cultivation, on which they grow wheat, Indian 
corn or maize, oats, peas, potatoes, pumpkins and squashes. In their 
gardens they raise beans, melons, cabbages, onions, &c. A few have 



37 



planted fruit-trees in their gardens, such as apple-trees, cherry-trees, 
pear-trees, currant and gooseberry-bushes. All these thrive well here, 
when properly cultivated. They have a number of oxen, cows, horses, 
pigs, poultry, dogs and cats ; a few barns and stables ; a few waggons 
and sleighs, also all sorts of farming implements. " I guess," as the 
Yankees say, it would require an Indian as strong as Sampson to carry 
all his goods and chatties on his back now. 

He goes on to speak of the improvement in their dress ; they now 
use English cloth ; and he dwells especially upon the great ameli- 
oration of the condition of the women, who have been raised from 
the drudgery of beasts of burthen, and are now treated with consi- 
deration by their husbands. 

A similar instance is furnished by the history of the St. Clair 
Chippeways, of whom the Rev. J. Evans says, 

They were all drunkards with one exception, not drunkards in a 
limited sense, but the most abandoned and unblushing sots imagina- 
ble ; they were never sober when they could procure anything to in- 
toxicate them ; they were idle in the extreme, never attending to any 
business except hunting ; the women being considered the proper 
persons to manage the agricultural department, which consisted of 
perhaps half an acre of maize or Indian corn, seldom more ; the greater 
part of the produce of which was in general sold for whiskey at the 
spirit-store or the tavern, in the vicinity of which places the greater part 
of their time was spent, embracing every opportunity of soliciting 
from the whites the means of gratifying their insatiable thirst for the 
u fire water." Their places of abode, until about three years past, 
were bark wigwams ; and such was their poverty and wretchedness, 
that could my pen draw a faithful picture, and fully point out their 
extreme misery, there are few indeed in the island of comforts where 
you dwell, who would not charge me with exaggeration. Thus sinking 
in the slough of iniquity, the children were at times exposed to the most 
severe sufferings by hunger and nakedness. I have known many times 
a familyof small children left to spend several days and nights in the wig- 
wam alone, gathering a few sticks to warm their shivering limbs, or 
wandering through the bushes to obtain a few berries and roots ; chew- 
ing the bark of the elm and other trees to satisfy their hunger ; greedily 
devouring the potatoe peelings and refuse thrown out by the whites ; 
while their parents were rolling around some of those hotbeds of vice, 
those nurseries of crimes, the taverns. They were the most prodigal 
that can be conceived ; the annual payments made by the Crown as a 
remuneration for their lands, together with presents, amounting to se- 
veral thousand pounds sterling, were almost useless ; nay, in many 
cases, worse than useless, by making them indulge to a greater extent 
in drunkenness. I have known scores of them to sell all their goods 
thus obtained in two or three days. Such was their insatiable thirst 
for liquor, that a quart or two would induce them to part with any- 
thing they possessed, rather than forego the gratification of a drunken 
frolic. I have known the Indians live for days on a dead horse, ox 
or other animal, rather than leave the spot where they could procure 
whiskey. * * * * 



The Rev. Mr. Ryerson, who is described as being intimately ac- 
quainted with the Mohawks, gives a similar history of their past 
and present circumstances : — 

A striking proof of the inefficacy of merely educational instruction 
to civilize barbarous tribes, and of the power of the gospel to civilize as 
well as to christianize, the most vicious of the human race, is furnished 
by the Mohawk nation of Indians in Upper Canada. 

The Mohawks are one of the six nations of Indians to whom, at an 
early period, His Majesty granted a large tract of land, situate on the 
banks of the Grand River, the most fertile tract of land in Upper Can- 
ada, lying in the heart of the jnwince and surrounded by a white 
population. Most of these Mohawks had even been baptized, and 
they were visited once a year by a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land. 

The greater part of them were taught to read and write : they were 
exhorted to till the soil, and cultivate the arts of civilized life ; yet this 
nation was more drunken, ferocious, and vicious than any one of the 
five other heathen nations on the Indian reservation. They were pro- 
verbially savage and revengeful, as well as shrewd, so as often to be a 
terror to their white neighbours. In no respect was the social and civil 
condition of the Mohawks practically and morally improved above that 
of the neighbouring heathen tribes, by the mere educational and civil- 
izing process of 40 years. The example and vices of the Mohawks 
were often urged by their heathen neighbours as an objection against 
the Christian religion itself, when missionaries were sent among them. 
But a few years ago (1825), when the gospel was preached to these 
Mohawk Indians, as well as to the several tribes of Chippeway Indians, 
a large portion of them embracecTit, and became at once changed in 
their dispositions and reformed in their lives, teachable, sober, honest, 
and industrious ; and are improving in the arts of civilization, and cul- 
tivating the virtues and charities of Christian life. 

In the instance of these various tribes of Indians, we see that the 
very people who had access to civilization not only in the form in 
which it ordinarily presents itself to savages, but for whom also ex- 
pensive and more than ordinarily humane exertions were made, 
under the patronage of the Governor, to lead them to adopt civili- 
zation, nevertheless withstood all inducements to alter their habits. 
The allurements presented to them altogether failed, so that there 
was neither civilization nor Christianity among them; when a second 
experiment^ beginning at the other end, was made. Christianity 
was preached to them by resident missionaries; and no sooner did 
they become converts to its doctrines, than they exhibited that 
desire for the advantages of civilized life, and that delight in its 
conveniences, which have hitherto been supposed to belong exclu- 
sively to cultivated nations, and to be utterly strange and abhorrent 
to the nature of the savage. 

On the subject of the North American Indians, Mr. Beecham 
concludes his evidence by saying, — 

I think I may safely lay down this as a general rule, that wherever 



30 



the Gospel has not been introduced among the Indians of Upper Can- 
ada, there the process by which the diminution of their numbers is ef- 
fected is steadily going on ; but wherever Christianity has been established, 
there a check has been interposed to the process of destruction ; and on 
the older stations, among the tribes that have been the greatest length 
of time under the influence of Christian principles, there the population 
has begun to increase. Christianity, by the change which it has 
wrought in their character and pursuits, by saving them from those 
destructive vices to which they were given up, and promoting that 
industry which procures for them the means of healthful subsistence, 
has thus checked the evils under which they were wasting away. 

The Rev. W. Ellis, the Secretary of the London Missionary So- 
ciety, who was for many years himself a Missionary in the South 
Sea Islands, thus gives the summary of the results of his own expe- 
rience : — 

It is my conviction that Christianity supplies materials and machin- 
ery for promoting civilization of the highest order. I might adduce one 
or two examples of the correctness of these sentiments from a part of 
the world with which I am more familiar than any other, the South 
Sea Islands. If civilization be viewed as consisting in exemption from 
temporal wants, and the possession of means of present enjoyment, the 
inhabitants of these islands were placed in circumstances more favour- 
able to civilization than perhaps any other people under Heaven. They 
have a salubrious climate, a fertile soil, and an abundance of all that 
could render the present life happy, so far as mere animal existence is 
concerned ; but there was perhaps no portion of the human family in a 
state of wretchedness equal to that to which they were reduced before 
Christianity was introduced among them. They were accustomed to 
practise infanticide, probably more extensively than any other nation ; 
they offered human sacrifices in greater numbers than I have read of 
there having been offered by any other nation ; they were accustomed 
to war of the most savage and exterminating kind. Efforts were made 
by the missionaries for the introduction of the arts of civilization, with 
instruction in the truths of the Christian religion. For 15 yearsthose ef- 
forts were altogether unsuccessful ; they produced no amelioration in the 
morals or in the circumstances of the people. The vices which sailors 
took there rendered the inhabitants more wretched. When Christianity 
was adopted by the people, human sacrifices, infant murder and war 
entirely ceased ; peace remained unbroken for 15 years ; the language 
which the missionaries had learned during the interval between their 
arrival and the adoption of Christianity by the people, had been re- 
duced to a system ; orthography, a grammar and dictionary had been 
prepared ; portions of the Bible had been translated. When the natives 
adopted Christianity they were willing to become pupils in the school ; 
but until Christianity supplied a motive, by producing a desire to read 
the Scriptures, they never had a motive sufficient to lead them to endure 
the restraint and confinement of the school, but they have done so since, 
and there are several thousands now capable of reading and writing. 
The entire volume of Divine Revelation has been translated ; the 
New Testament has been printed, and is in circulation among them. 
Christianity condemned indolence, required industry, and supplied in- 



40 



ducements to labour ; and the natives, since they embraced Christi- 
anity, have acquired a knowledge of a number of useful manual arts. 
Before that the efforts of the missionaries to induce them to work in 
iron and in wood produced no satisfactory result; since that they 
have been taught to work in wood, and there are now carpenters who 
hire themselves out to captains of ships to work at repairs of vessels, 
&c, for which they receive regular wages ; and there are blacksmiths 
that hire themselves out to captains of ships, for the purpose of prepar- 
ing iron-work required in building or repairing ships. The natives 
have been taught not only to construct boats, but to build vessels, and 
there are perhaps 20, (there have been as many as 40) small vessels, 
of from 40 to 80 or 90 tons burthen, built by the natives, navigated 
sometimes by Europeans, and manned by natives, all the fruit of the 
natives' own skill and industry. They have been taught to build neat 
and comfortable houses, and to cultivate the soil. They could not be 
induced to do that while heathen, for they used to say the fruit ripens 
and the pigs get fat while we are asleep, and that is all we want ; why, 
therefore, should we work? But now they have new wants; a number 
of articles of clothing and commerce are necessary to their comfort, and 
they cultivate the soil to supply them. At one island, where I was 
once 15 months without seeing a single European excepting our own 
families, there were I think 28 ships put in for provisions last year, and 
all obtained the supplies they wanted. Besides cultivating potatoes 
and yams, and raising stock, fowls and pigs, the cultivation, the spin- 
ning and the weaving of the cotton has been introduced by missionary 
artizans ; and there are some of the chiefs and a number of the people, 
especially in one of the islands, who are now decently clothed in gar- 
ments made after the European fashion, produced from cotton grown in 
their own gardens, spun by their own children, and woven in the is- 
lands. One of the chiefs of the island of Rarotonga, as stated by the 
missionaries, never wears any other dress than that woven in the island. 
They have been taught also to cultivate the sugar-cane, which is in- 
digenous, and to make sugar, and some of them have large plantations, 
employing at times 40 men. They supply the ships with this useful 
article, and at some of the islands between 50 and 60 vessels touch in a 
single year. The natives of the islands send a considerable quantity 
away ; I understand that one station sent as much as 40 tons away last 
year; in November last a vessel of 90 tons burthen, built in the 
islands, was sent to the colony of New South Wales laden with Tahi- 
tian grown sugar, 

4417. Have they any slaves there? — Not since Christianity has been 
introduced ; formerly captives taken in war were made slaves. 

4418. Then Christianity, among other good effects, has led to the 
abolition of slavery among them ? — They never considered the two 
things compatible. Besides the sugar they have been taught to culti- 
vate, they prepare arrow-root, and they sent to England in one year, 
as I was informed by merchants in London, more than had been im- 
ported into this country for nearly 20 previous years. Cattle also have 
been introduced and preserved, chiefly by the missionaries ; pigs, doo-s, 
and rats were the only animals they had before, but the missionaries 
have introduced cattle among them. While they continued heathen, 
they disregarded, nay, destroyed some of those first landed among them, 
but since that time they have highly prized them, and by their atten- 
tion to them they are now so numerous as to enable the natives to supply 
ships with fresh beef at the rate of 3d. a pound. The islanders have 



41 



also been instructed by the missionaries in the manufacture of cocoa- 
nut oil, of which large quantities are exported. They have been taught 
to cultivate tobacco, and this would have been a valuable article of 
commerce had not the duty in New South Wales been so high as to 
exclude that grown in the islands from the market. The above are 
some of the proofs that Christianity prepares the way for and neces- 
sarily leads to the civilization of those by whom it is adopted. There 
are now in operation among a people who, when the missionaries arri- 
ved, were destitute of a written language, 78 schools, which contain be- 
tween 12,000 and 13,000 scholars. The Takitians have also a simple, 
explicit and wholesome code of laws, as the result of their imbibing the 
principles of Christianity. This code of laws is printed and circulated 
among them, understood by all, and acknowledged by all as the su- 
preme rule of action for all classes in their civil and social relations. 
The laws have been productive of great benefits. I have before me a 
copy of the code of laws printed in 1835, in the islands, and a transla- 
tion also. The missionaries have often been charged with being opposed 
to the introduction of the means for the temporal improvement of the 
people. I might adduce the evidence of many witnesses to show that 
the labours of the missionaries, while chiefly directed to the spiritual 
improvement of the people, have originated and promoted the civiliza- 
tion of the most efficient kind. But I will only quote the testimony of 
one, a naval officer, Captain Beechy, who visited the island in 1826, 
and was there several months. After mentioning a number of changes, 
he refers to the laws. There were several instances in which he saw 
their operation. In reference to their practical working, he says, " The 
limit thus imposed on the arbitrary power of the monarch, and the 
security thus afforded to the liberties and properties of the people, 
reflect credit upon the missionaries, who were very instrumental in 
introducing these laws." And after adverting to a trial for theft, Cap- 
tain Beechy, as emoted by Mr. Ellis, proceeds to say, " If we compare 
the fate which would have befallen the prisoners, supposing them inno- 
cent, had they been arraigned under the early form of government, 
with the transactions of this day, we cannot but congratulate the people 
on the introduction of the present penal code, and acknowledge that it 
is one of the greatest temporal blessings they have derived from the 
introduction of Christianity." Christianity, when received by an un- 
civilized people, not only leads to the adoption of salutary laws for pre- 
serving the peace of the community and cultivating the virtues of social 
life, but it secures protection to the merchant and the mariner, and the 
greatest facilities for the extension of commerce. Traffic can often only 
be carried on with uncivilized tribes at great risk, even of personal 
safety ; but where missionaries have introduced the Gospel, our vessels 
go with safety and confidence. Formerly, when a wreck occurred, the 
natives hastened to plunder and to murder, or reserved those who 
escaped from the sea for sacrifices ; now they succour them and protect 
their property. I could give many instances of this, but I content my- 
self with one. It is contained in a letter left by Captain Chase, of the 
American ship Falcon, with the native teachers at Rumtu, at which 
island he had been wrecked : — 

" The natives gave us all the assistance in their power, from the time 
the ship struck to the present moment. The first day, while landing 
the things from the ship, they were put into the hands of the natives, 
and carried up to the native mission-house, a distance of half a mile, 
and not a single article of clothing was taken from any man belonging 



4$ 



to the ship, though they had it in their power to have plundered us of 
everything that was landed. Since I have lived ashore, myself, officers 
and rjeople have received the kindest treatment from the* natives that 
can be imagined, for which I shall ever be thankful. Myself and offi- 
cers have lived in the house of Buna (a teacher from Raiatea), who, 
together with his wife, has paid even' attention to make us comfortable, 
for which I return my unfeigned thanks, being the only compensation 
I can make them at present." 

The moral progress of this quarter of the world stated in this 
general survey is more particularly detailed by the missionaries of 
the several societies who have there laboured ; and the testimony of 
all to the necessity of beginning with Christianity is the same. 
Thus a clergyman of the Church Missionary Society in New Zea- 
land, says, in answer to the question " From the experience you 
have had in missionary exertions, would you begin by attempting 
to civilize or by attempting to christianize? — Certainly by attempt- 
ing to christianize; 15 years we attempted to civilize without effect, 
and the very moment that Christianity established itself in only one 
instance in the island, from that moment civilization commenced, 
and has been going on, hand in hand with Christianity, but never 
preceded it. 

In the case of New Zealand, it appears solely to have been the 
religious character of the missionaries which won for them the con- 
fidence of the people. 

" We found them decidedly a savage people, addicted to cani- 
balism, to murder and to everything which was evil, and accus- 
tomed to injuries from Europeans." 

One of the first proofs of the influence which the missionaries 
had acquired, was given on the occasion of a war which some 
among them were desirous to terminate. The account is so charac- 
teristic of the manners of the people and of the missionaries' method 
of influencing them, that we transcribe the whole of it : 

1615. In what instances have the missionaries exercised their influ- 
ence in making peace between contending tribes ? — The first instance 
was the battle of Hokianga. A young man, the son of a chief, came 
over to the Bay of Islands, and when he arrived there he took up a 
stone, and dashing it upon the ground, said, " This stone is "VVarrehuniu/"' 
That is one of the greatest curses that he could utter ; and the custom of the 
country is always to punish the tribe to which the party belongs that has 
uttered the curse, and not the party himself. Immediately that Warre- 
huinu heard that he had been cursed by this man he went and began to 
punish the tribe, which punishment they resisted. One man loaded his 
musket with ball cartridge, and fired it into the midst of the party ; a skir- 
mish ensued : TTarrehumu was shot dead, his wife and children and 20 
of his men. The rest escaped, and told their tale in the Bay ; and the chiefs 
assembled to consult together what they ought to do, and they were 
unanimously of opinion that it was impossible to make peace till they had 
had satisfaction in blood to double the amount shed on their side. 
There were two or three of them that were very desirous of making 
peace, on account of the great slaughter that must take place if they 



43 



fought, for they were equally well armed, anal about 2,000 on each 
side ; and one of the principal men jumped up in the midst of the con- 
sultation, and said, "There are these missionaries that have been talk- 
ing to us for 15 years about peace, let us see what they can do. "' They 
came, and requested us to go. We went, rive of us, in a body. We 
found 2,000 people on one side of a little eminence, and 2,000 on another 
side, within musket shot, waiting the arrival of the chiefs to commence 
the attack. We pitched our tent between them for three successive 
days ) we went from tribe to tribe and from hut to hut to endeavour to 
make it up between them. At the end of that time there was great 
division in their councils, and we seemed to be as far from effecting our 
purpose as at the first moment ; and then we requested them to leave 
the decision of it to one individual, which they resolved to do, and left 
it to Tareha, a chief of great importance in the Bay, but a very dreadful 
savage. We succeeded in getting him to our tent, and he resolved in 
his own mind to decide for peace ; we tried to work upon his mind in 
the best manner we could. 

1616. Is he connected with either of those parties ? — Yes. 

1617. Both parties placed it in his hands ? — 'Yes, it was left to the 
Bay of Islanders to decide ; the other people could not say a word. 

1618. Was it in consequence of your communications with Tareha 
that he was induced to take the resolution in favour of peace I — Him- 
self and the whole of the 4,000 people attributed it entirely to that, and 
from that moment we date our present influence in the country. 

1619. Did you then secure peace between the contending tribes? — 
Yes ; and they have been the firmest friends and allies of any distinct 
tribes we are acquainted with in the country ever since that time. 

1620. What sort of arguments did you use with that person ? — We 
first began to tell him of what would be the effect of it in lessening 
their own numbers, even if they gained the victory, and that the people 
from the south would then come down upon them, knowing that 
Hongi was dead, they would come in a body upon them and destroy 
them ; and then we endeavoured to point out to him the evil of it in 
the sight of that God whom we came to make known. After our con- 
sultation he got up, and as he was passing out of the tent he said, 
" Perhaps I shall be for war, perhaps I shall be for peace, but I think I 
shall be for war ; perhaps we shall fight, perhaps we shall not fight, but 
I think we shall fight." We then tried to work upon his fears ; he was 
an enormously large man, and Mr. Williams called out to him, "Take 
care, Tareha, you are a very big man, and no musket-ball can pass by 
you. 3 ' 

1624. Was the result of your interference, that what would have 
probably been a bloody battle was prevented, and that peace was made 
between the contending tribes ? — Yes ; and they have remained upon 
the most friendly terms ever since. 

1625. Do you believe that if it had not been for the interference of 
the missionaries this conflict would have taken place? — There is no 
question in my own mind, nor in the mind of any New Zealander I 
have ever met with. 

1626. Did the measures which the missionaries took upon that occa- 
sion tend to extend and enlarge their influence afterwards? — Yes, 
throughout the whole country. It was made known in the southern 
parts of the island, and brought great numbers to request our interfer- 
ence in their quarrels also. 

1627. Do you recollect any other instances in which the missionaries 
have been engaged in promoting peace ? — Not in which I myself have 



44 



been engaged ; but many in which my brethren have, at the different 
stations. 

1628. Can you speak of those from that kind of information that you 
can confidently state that you know the facts ? — Yes. 

1629. Will you state any that have come to your knowledge in that 
way ? — There was the battle of Tauranga : the first rise of that was, the 
captain of an English vessel, a whaling ship, had a quarrel with some 
women on board his vessel ; he was very angry about it, and deter- 
mined to get the natives of the interior to punish those on the coast for 
the insult which those two women had offered to him in that quarrel. 
He sent into the interior to fetch the chiefs, telling them they must 
come to fight a battle for the insult of those two women. They refused 
to do so, saying, that it was not according to New Zealand custom ; 
that they only fought when people had done some real injury, but that 
they never fought when it was all mouth, and that this had been nothing 
but mouth, and consequently they refused to fight. He told them that 
he would make it known in England ; that every one in England 
thought the New Zealanders were a brave people ; but he would let the 
English people know, and let the King know that they were cowards ; 
but that if they would fight he would supply them with arms and am- 
munition. They could not bear this, and therefore they resolved to 
fight. They brought down a great number of people. We were rather 
too late in going over ; we did not know so much of it as we do some- 
times ; and about a quarter of an hour after the battle we saw a hun- 
dred of the people dead and wounded upon the beach. Then, according 
to the custom of the country, a number of the New Zealanders went to 
the south to seek satisfaction for the death of their friends. Those per- 
sons who went down intending to cut off some of the tribes of the south 
as a payment for the death of their friends, were fallen in with by a 
large armed party of the natives, and were all cut off themselves ; 41 
went and only one returned. This caused the whole of the Bay of 
Islanders to arm themselves and to go and fight with the tribes of the 
south for the loss of those 40. There were between 50 and 60 canoes. 
The canoes were attended by our missionary ship, the Active, the mis- 
sionary boat, and a small cutter that we have. Mr. Williams accom- 
panied the flotilla. They were five weeks before the fortification of the 
besieged, negociating with the besiegers, but without effect, the first 
five weeks. The missionaries then returned home, and afterwards, not 
satisfied, they went back again. Mr. Williams went down in his boat 
a second time, with Mr. Chapman, Mr. Kemp, and Mr. Fairburn, and 
effected a reconciliation between the two parties. The Bay of Island- 
ers returned home without having destroyed a single individual. 

Mr. Coates, the secretary of the Church Missionary Society, 
gives a long list of improvements effected in New Zealand ; we 
take this paragraph as being of the latest date, 14 December, 1835 : — 
* * * * "The scene in the Waimate and its vicinity is much 
changed, and we may truly be said to live in a civilized country. 
Our neighbours, those not connected with the seaports, are civil, 
courteous, honest and teachable. Locks and bolts are but little 
used, and but little needed ; working tools are safe, although lying 
in all directions. Ten years ago a person scarcely dared to lay a 
ool down, as it was almost sure to be stolen." 



45 



The general results of the mission in New Zealand are thus 
stated : — 

1782. What have been the effects of the exertions of the mission- 
aries in a general manner] — Abolishing their superstitious observ- 
ances, establishing the Sabbath, rendering the natives more indus- 
trious, bringing a large proportion of their land into a state of culti- 
vation, preventing war, ameliorating the condition of the slaves, and 
making the language a written one." 

Amongst other benefits conferred by Christianity, the ameliora- 
tion of the laws of the islanders is undoubtedly one of the most im- 
portant. * * * 

We find that the missionaries have often been successful me- 
diators between the natives and those who have injured them. 

The missionaries made it their business to teach their converts 
useful trades. * * * 

They are " very apt indeed" at learning mechanical trades. 

It is a remarkable feature in this work, that it has been greatly 
extended by the agency of the converted natives themselves, since 
it has always formed a part of the missionary system to employ 
native teachers to propagate Christianity. * * * 

Thus, then, amidst these clusters of islands, containing a popu- 
lation known to exceed a million, and perhaps of several millions, 
a change (as we have seen) of unequalled importance, because 
affecting so large a mass of mankind, has been begun in our own 
time, and has been almost imperceptibly going forward. 

The first attempt made for their conversion was in 1797; for 
17 years the work appeared to make no progress, and in Europe 
no other notion was entertained of these people than that they were 
idolaters and cannibals, and their country a rude and barbarous 
wilderness, without arts, without commerce, without civilization, 
and without the rudiments of Christianity. Such was the estimate, 
not inaccurately formed, of their state 20 years ago. Within this 
brief space, under no other agency than the influence of Christian 
truth, they have conveyed a cargo of idols to the depot of the 
Missionary Society in London ; they have become factors to furnish 
our vessels with provisions, and merchants to deal with us in the 
agricultural growth of their own country. Their language has been 
reduced to writing, and they have gained the knowledge of letters. 
They have, many of them, emerged from the tyranny of the will 
of their chiefs into the protection of a written law, abounding with 
liberal and enlightened principles, and 200,000 of them are re- 
ported to have embraced Christianity. 



With respect to the native tribes of South Africa, the copious 
evidence taken by your Committee, has related rather to their 



46 



civil affairs than to their moral and religious condition. It is not 
now necessary to repeat the circumstances of oppression under 
which, till within a late period, the Hottentots laboured. They had 
fallen, as we have seen, into a state of bondage to the farmers, 
through a system of forced contracts of service, and of apprentice- 
ship of their children ; both of which are noticed with strong dis- 
approbation by the Commissioners of Inquiry. * * * 

After noticing some of the attempts made by the 
different missionary societies for the improvement of 
the Hottentots, the Report proceeds thus : — 

At this time an experiment was made which proves what may be 
done for men by merely giving fair play to the motives which stimu- 
late honest industry. It is thus detailed by the present Lieutenant- 
governor of the frontier : 

The Government, wishing to give full effect to the provisions of the 
50th Ordinance, and well aware that this law could never operate to 
its full extent in favour of the class in whose behalf it had been framed, 
without a fair field being opened for the exertions of its industry, de- 
termined on the experiment of allotting lands to a certain number of 
Hottentot families. This experiment was intended to be upon a small 
scale. Hottentots of good character, or possessing property, were in- 
vited to settle in the branches of the Kat River. They were to be lo- 
cated in the immediate vicinity of the Caffres, who were then in a state of 
great irritation against the colony. Some families of Hottentots soon 
made their appearance on the spot ; few of these possessed property to 
any amount ; they were poor, as might be expected, but w ere generally 
known to be steady men. It was soon, however, found to be impossi- 
ble to draw a line of distinction. Hottentots flocked in from all quar- 
ters, many of them known to be indifferent characters ; even some of 
those who till then had been vagabondizing came and begged to be tried. 
To exclude these became difficult ; to refuse a man the opportunity of 
bettering his condition only because it was suspected that he would 
prove unworthy, appeared cruel. In the mean time the Caffres threat- 
ened the new settlements, and it became necessary to arm the new set- 
tlers, or to expose them to be massacred ; ruin was anticipated from 
such a step. The Caffres with their assagais were thought less dangerous 
to the colony than a congregation of Hottentots armed, with muskets, 
with little or nothing to eat. That these men would turn the weapons 
which we had put into their hands against ourselves as well as against 
the Caffres, and that the country would be deluged with blood, was 
confidently predicted. The clamour became loud, and the projectors 
themselves began to doubt whether they might not have acted too rashly ; 
but the step, whether wise or rash, was taken ; hundreds of able-bodied 
men, well armed and supplied with ammunition, but with little food, 
were within hail of each other ; hungry men so circumstanced, might 
(it was thought) make short work of the numberless flocks of the Caffres 
and colonists on both sides and all round them. Such were the pre- 
dictions then expressed ; but the conduct of the Hottentots soon gave 
them a practical contradiction. They were told " Show yourselves 
worthy of freedom, and your farther improvement is in your own 



47 



power." Instead of collecting in a mass, eating and sleeping until the 
little they then had should be consumed, and then carrying fire and de- 
struction over the country, and allowing the Caffresto surprise them, cut 
all their throats, and with their muskets carry on a more equal warfare 
with the colony, as was anticipated, they set immediately to work, cut 
canals which, considering their tools and the rock and indurated soil 
through which they had to penetrate, would have been thought imprac- 
ticable. They cultivated, by means of the most miserable imple- 
ments, an extent of country which surprised every body who visited 
the locations, including the governor. Those who had no food lived 
upon wild roots and by working for those who had something ; these 
again were obliged to economise to support their families, until in a 
few months they had an abundance of pumpkins, Indian corn, peas, 
beans, &c. Instead of apathy or indifference about property, they be- 
come (now that they had property to contend for) as covetous and li- 
tigious about land and water as any other set of colonists. They dis- 
play the utmost anxiety to have schools established among them. Se- 
veral of these schools are in a flourishing state, and so eager are they for 
instruction, that if they find only one amongst them who can spell, 
where nothing better can be obtained, they get him to teach that little 
to the rest. They travel considerable distances to attend divine service 
regularly ; their spiritual guides speak with delight of the fruits of 
their labours. Nowhere have temperance societies succeeded half so 
well as among this people, formerly so prone to intemperance. They 
have themselves petitioned the government that their grants may con- 
tain a prohibition against the establishment of canteens or brandy 
houses. They have repulsed the Caffres on every occasion on which 
they have been attacked, and are now on the best of terms with that 
nation. They have cost the government nothing beyond the salary of 
their minister, from 15 to 20 mudes of Indian corn, and a few more of 
oats given them for seed the first year, 1829, and the loan of the mus- 
kets, together with a little ammunition given them for their own protec- 
tion as well as that of the country in general. They pay every tax 
like the rest of the people ; they have rendered the Kat River decidedly 
by far the safest part of the frontier; and the same plan, followed upon 
a more extensive scale, would soon enable Government to withdraw 
the troops altogether, and put an end to that desultory warfare which 
must retard the improvement both in the colony and its barbarous 
neighbours, whilst no excuse would be left for Hottentot vagrancy. 

Petty misdemeanors we must suppose occur in this as in every com- 
munity, but they have not hitherto cost the public a magistrate, and 
the nearest functionary of the kind is two long days' ride distant. I 
only recollect two cases tried before the civil courts in which settlers of 
the Kat River were the accused ; one was a Bushman who had stolen some 
goats before he had joined the settlement, and was taken up after he 
had reached it, and the other was the case of two Hottentots who had 
stolen a Caffre cow, which was discovered by the vigilance of the head 
of the party to which they belonged, who arrested and sent them pri- 
soners to Graham's Town, though the owner of the cow wished to make 
up the matter, by receiving back another cow. In short, the most 
prejudiced men who have travelled through the locations admit that 
the Hottentots have done wonders ; that as far as the land is arable they 
have made a garden of it from one end to the other ; they have already 
supplied the military posts with forage and provisions to a considerable 
extent, and just as I was embarking the commissary-general handed 



48 



to me a memorandum of some of their tenders which he had just ac- 
cepted. The above statement may possibly by some be considered as 
too favourable, and individuals may be found who, jealous of the success 
of this experiment, in refutation of all their sinister predictions, may point 
out indolent and bad characters in the Kat River settlement, such of 
course existing there as well as in every other place where numbers of 
men are congregated. But to these objectors I would reply, that I 
never meant to represent the Hottentots as faultless or better thau 
any other race of people in the aggregate. I have only wished to 
show that as soon as they were treated as reasonable beings they 
acted reasonably, and the facts now stated can be proved to the 
letter. 

The difficulties of the undertaking are further told. Dr. Philip 
says, speaking of the Kat River settlement, " I saw in one instance, 
in 1832, a Bushman location, and at that time they had been very 
recently established on that location, and they had nothing what- 
ever when they were first located there. They borrowed a hatchet ; 
they made a wooden plough without one iron nail in it, entirely of 
wood, and with this they cultivated their land. They received from 
the first crop enough to supply them through the winter, and some- 
thing to sell. In the second year they cultivated to a greater ex- 
tent; they had then a very excellent plough, which they made, 
themselves with an iron coulter ; they had also made a waggon for 
themselves; they had had no previous advantages whatever; they 
were literally in the situation which Captain Stockenstrom mentions, 
when they asked him what they were to do for means to cultivate 
their ground. 4 If you are not able,' said he, 'to do it with your 
fingers, you need not go there.' But they had resources in their 
own minds, and those resources were brought into action, and with 
the most complete success." 

The Rev. J. Read states, " They had to form dams across the 
river and water-courses, sometimes to the depth of 10, 12 and 
14 feet, and that sometimes through solid rock, and with very 
sorry pickaxes, iron crows and spades, and few of them. These 
works have excited the admiration of visitors ; they had to cut 
roads also on the sides of mountains of considerable height. An 
obstacle was raised, in the beginning, to the Hottentots residing 
alone ; a mixture was recommended of Dutch and English. The 
Hottentots begged and prayed to be left alone for a few years, and 
Captain Stockenstrom entered into their feeling, and said to them, 
' Then show to the world that you can work as well as others, 
and that without the shambok (the whip).' " 

They did work, and as a proof that they did not relax in their 
industry, we may mention that, according to Colonel Wade, they 
had, in 1833, completed 55 canals for irrigation, of which 44 
measured nearly 24 miles. They were not disheartened by common 
accidents, such as a drought and a sickness amongst the horses, 
and the settlement continued to prosper beyond the most sanguine 
expectations of Captain Stockenstrom, who planned, and the 



49 



Government who promoted the experiments ; and as Colonel Wade 
remarks, the statement of its progress afforded the " best evidence 
that the Hottentots could be industrious, and were as capable of 
contending with ordinary difficulties as their fellow-men." 

But there is another important fact to be noticed with regard to 
the Kat River settlement. It took, at its very commencement, a 
religious character, to which, as we believe, may be ascribed its 
subsequent well-doing. Many of the leaders and the men, who set 
the example of industry, had been educated at missionary establish- 
ments, and so impressed were they with the necessity of religious 
administrations, that they would not remain without a missionary, 
and sent for Mr. Read within a few months after their establish- 
ment. The Rev. W. Thompson was also appointed Dutch minister 
at the Kat River, and both have spoken with the greatest satisfac- 
tion of the people. Mr. Read says of them : — 

" The people were moral ; many had been addicted to drink- 
ing brandy, and that to excess; but when the temperance society 
was established, about 1,700 signed its rules, and when I left only four 
or five persons in three years had broken through the rules. Although 
wine is not included in the rule, yet most of the people refrain from 
taking any ; they also sent a memorial to the governor, requesting that 
their grants for their lands might be given so as never to admit a can- 
teen in the settlement. Religion flourished among them. I baptized 
about 260 adults during the four years and a half that I was with 
them, besides children, and the number of church members was about 
400 ; the attendance on religious worship was great ; on Sunday we 
were obliged to divide into two congregations, and the conduct of the 
people was most uniform. The older people were most zealous for in- 
struction themselves, and very anxious to have their children educated, 
and for the latter object .bore some of the expenses themselves. We 
had seven schools for the larger children and one school of industry, 
besides five infant schools, mostly carried on by native teachers, receiv- 
ing a small salary from the Missionary Society, and generally sup- 
ported in provisions by the people. There are connected with our 
congregation about three-fourths of the settlement. * 

Had it indeed depended on the Hottentots, we believe the fron- 
tier would have been spared the outrages from which they, as well 
as others, have suffered. Their flourishing settlement was thrown 
into confusion by the Caffre invasion, and the predominance of 
martial lav/, and the missionaries were ordered from their stations. 
We are informed that the " Kat River local force" behaved steadily 
and bravely in the war, and we hope that their loyalty may be 
speedily rewarded by a restoration of the privileges of which they 
were disposed to make so good an use. The native teachers are, 
we are told, carrying on the work of education to the best of their 
power ; but they are extremely anxious for the return of their mis- 
sionaries. 

The northern frontier of our colony, an extent of 300 miles, is 
bordered by the Griquas, a mixed race, " the offspring of colonists 
by Hottentot females, who finding themselves treated as inferior by 

E 



50 



their kinsmen of European blood, and prevented from acquiring the 
possession of land, or any fixed property, within the colony, about 
fifty years ago sought a refuge from contumely and oppression among 
the native tribes beyond its limits, where their numbers were gra- 
dually augmented by refugees of the same class from the colony, 
and >y intermarriages with females of the Bushmen and Coranna 
tribes around them." In these people we find a striking instance 
of the benefit of missionary restraints ; and they afford a remarkable 
contrast with the Caffres on the north-eastern frontier, whose un- 
settled state has not allowed them as yet to take the mould of their 
teachers. * * * * 

A fact mentioned by Dr. Philip marks the influence which the 
missionaries early acquired over the Griquas in leading them to 
acts of justice. They have been accused, and with much probabi- 
lity of truth, of having, whilst themselves in a savage state, treated 
the Bushmen with barbarity, and expelled them from the greater 
part of their country. This, however, was before the missionaries 
went to them. " I never understood that when the missionaries 
discovered the fountains, where Griqua Town now stands, there 
were any tribes or persons in occupation of the place. They found 
that part of the country empty, and they took possession of it. 
Shortly after, they discovered some springs of water at a place which 
was named Campbell. This place was about 40 miles distant from 
Griqua Town, and there was only one Bushman and his family 
upon it; and Adam Kok, late chief of Philippolis, paid him 150 
dollars for the fountain he claimed as belonging to him. This trans- 
action shews, that at a very early period, the Griquas had imbibed 
some principles of justice, towards the Bushmen from the mis- 
sionaries. This fact was brought to my knowledge by the following 
circumstance. When Campbell was put under the jurisdiction of 
Waterboer by the treaty Sir Benjamin D'Urban entered into with 
that chief, Adam Kok, the chief of Philippolis, preferred his claim 
for the 150 dollars he had paid for that fountain, which claim, 
after an investigation of the circumstances, was allowed, and the 
money was paid to him." 

Long after the settlement of the Griquas, they not only tolerated 
the Bushmen in the land, but in 1832, when, as we have seen, Dr. 
Philip did not see a single Bushman kraal in the Bushman coun- 
try within the colony, he passed 1 1 kraals between Philippolis and 
the Yellow River, the inhabitants of all of which spoke of the Gri- 
quas as their benefactors, and the only people to whom they could 
look up for protection. The Griquas are said to have once held the 
Bushmen in slavery. " They now," says Mr. Moffat, " regard the 
practice with abhorrence." We regret to say that our farmers are 
less scrupulous, as is proved by the following fact mentioned by 
Mr. Moffat: — "The Bushmen in general are attached to their 
children. Many applications for them have been rejected by the 
parents, though the price offered has been raised with a view to 



51 



tempt them. One Bushman was induced to yield his consent to 
give up his child for a cow, and a Griqua farmer was applied to, to 
lend one for the purpose of effecting the bargain. The Griqua seemed 
to appeal to me for advice how to act, stating that his heart forbade 
him ; and as I discouraged him, he refused to give the cow, and 
the bargain was consequently broken ofl. The Bushmen in question 
were living from choice with the Griquas, and perfectly free ; and 
application was made to Berandt, one of the Griqua captains, to 
influence the Bushmen to sell their children, and he observed to 
me, that he could not do it ; that it was slave-trade to barter for 
children : and what was he to think of our people who could make 
such a proposal to him," 

Having got the Griquas to settle, Mr. Anderson next induced 
them to adopt a more regular form of government, and also got the 
Colonial Government to confirm a chief of their electing. 

They do not, however, appear to have been willing to profess 
entire subjection to the Colonial Government, and their refusing 
to furnish recruits in 1814 gave great umbrage. It was with 
some difficulty that Dr. Philip obtained leave for the continuance 
of the mission among these people : the missionaries were, however, 
suffered to remain, and in 1819 the connexion with the colony was 
strengthened by the establishment of a fair at Beaufort, for the 
mutual benefit of the colonists and the native tribes, of whom the 
Griquas were the principal dealers. " At the first fair the business 
done by that people amounted to 27,000 rix dollars ; and on most 
of the goods sold to the Griquas by the colonists the latter had a 
profit of from 200 to 500 per cent. In 1820 a second fair was held, 
which terminated as successfully as the first. On that occasion 
about 200 people attended, with 27 waggons, loaded with elephants' 
teeth, salt, skins of all sorts, wheat, honey, and various curiosities, 
driving before them upwards of 700 oxen. This circumstance 
shows that missionaries have been the instruments of elevating con- 
siderably the character and condition of this people. I was in- 
formed by several respectable and intelligent individuals present, 
that the strangers not only vied with the colonists in preserving 
order, but that the praise of sobriety was so decidedly on their side, 
as on several occasions to induce the chief magistrate present to 
speak of their conduct with admiration, and point them out as ex- 
amples to the colonists." * * * * 

That education is rapidly advancing among the Griquas,. we have 
a casual illustration in a paper relating to the succession to one of 
the chieftainships, in which it is observed that a certain candidate 
" cannot write, and therefore will have no support among the peo- 
ple." Now the majority of the tribe, consisting of that portion to 
whom instruction has been afforded, are, as we are told, " well dis- 
posed, and anxious to live at peace with us;" and they afford a 
fresh instance of the natural connection of an appreciation of the 
advantages of education, with a friendly feeling towards Europeans^ 



52 



This is a fact which, whether we look at it in reference to the in- 
terests of religion and humanity, or to its effect on the security of 
property, or to its influence in procuring us at once the best and the 
cheapest defence against the inroads of the neighbouring tribes, 
deserves peculiar notice ; and an instructive contrast may be drawn 
between the tranquillity of this large extent of our northern frontier, 
protected by tribes humanized by Christianity, and treated with 
some consideration by our Government, and the constant disturb- 
ances along the 80 miles of the north-eastern boundary, fortified, as 
it has been, by a large military establishment against the inroads of 
exasperated natives. " As it is," says Captain Stockenstrom, " you 
will find, by the statements of the military commandant himself of 
1831, that then, after so many years of military coercion, the fron- 
tier was in as deplorable a condition as it ever had been. Would 
any man tell you that it is because there are not troops enough ? 
Let him then say how many it would take to protect a frontier of 
800 miles, if 1,000 cannot do so with 80 miles." — " If the present 
system be persevered in, we may require the troops to be increased 
tenfold, for every cottage and every flock may require a guard ; and, 
by an opposite course, we may hope to see them dispensed with al- 
together." * * * * 

We have yet another example to bring of the benefit we have de- 
rived from missionary influence upon bordering nations ; and it 
shall be taken from the quarter to which we have of late been es- 
pecially led to look with apprehension. So great has been the effect 
of missionaries upon the CafTre race, that Captain Stockenstrom (as 
we however think erroneously) would even estimate their political 
beyond their religious usefulness. He says, " Their influence is 
really wonderful ; but it is more of a political than a religious na- 
ture. Look at what Mr. Shaw's influence has done with one set of 
Caffres in the midst of all this last war ; that decidedly is political ; 
and if we look at the number of real converts which they have made 
in a religious point of view, I should think they would be found few 
in proportion to those who have been kept out of harm's way in 
other respects." 

The Committee next advert to the introduction of 
Christianity among the Caffres. 

Under these favourable circumstances, Christianity gradually 
took hold of the people's minds. They disputed every inch of 
ground with us ; they were willing to go into inquiry, but we found 
them very different in that respect to the Hottentots in the colony, 
who always receive with implicit credit what is stated to them by 
their teachers. The Caffres exhibited considerable powers of mind, 
and were not willing to receive any dogma until it was proved to 
their satisfaction. At length, however, "the truths of the Chris- 
tian religion made a deep impression on many of them ; the chiefs 
regularly attended divine worship ; some of their own children 



53 



learned to read and write. Kama and his wife, a daughter of the 
late Gaika, embraced the Christian faith, and were baptized ; and 
my successors," writes Mr. Shaw, " have favourably reported since 
of the continued progress of Christianity amongst them." The 
Sabbath has been recognized by proclamation of the chiefs ; and it 
is stated that the " effect of the Gospel in promoting public morals 
and humanizing the people is observable by all who visit that tribe." 
Whilst inculcating the doctrines of Christianity, Mr. Shaw neg- 
lected not the civilization of the people; and he succeeded in raising 
them from purely nomadic to agricultural habits. He taught them 
the use of the plough, an implement difficult for them to purchase, 
but seeing the advantage of it, they managed to acquire ploughs, 
and also waggons with teams of oxen. They have built a beau- 
tiful village at Wesleyville, with houses much in the same style as 
those of European settlers. Many of the tribe adopted an European 
dress ; and such was their demand for British manufactures, that 
Mr. Shaw applied to the Government to found a shop or store for 
the sale of British goods. The Wesleyan missionaries have pub- 
lished a grammar of the Caffre language, and have translated and 
printed nearly the whole of the New Testament and a portion of the 
Old ; and the school children (who are described as being very in- 
telligent) can read the Scriptures in their own language. Many 
barbarous customs have given way before the light and knowledge 
introduced by missionaries. "Their heathenish cruelties," says 
Mr. Kay, " have been materially checked. On every mission sta- 
tion the various superstitious ceremonies to which the people have 
been accustomed from time immemorial, are almost wholly laid 
aside. Some of these were of the most inhuman character, in- 
flicting torture and excruciating pain, by means of stinging insects ; 
of branding with hot stones ; of roasting or of burning, until nearly 
dead. Their sorcerers or rain-makers, also, a class of impostors, 
and the universal ringleaders in all this kind of cruelty, with whom 
every missionary has had more or less to contend, have been put to 
flight ; being, confessedly, unable to dwell where the light of the 
Gospel shines. I very much question, therefore, whether one of 
these men could now be found within a circle of many miles round 
about any of the stations. This circumstance will appear the more 
important when 1 state that the living stand in constant dread of 
them ; their property, and even life itself, being placed in jeopardy 
the moment they begin to call an assembly ; and all being kept in 
perfect suspense, as to the object of vengeance, until they announce 
their verdict, which is uniformly based upon some supposed witch- 
craft." On the first appearance of hostilities Pato, Kama, and 
Cobus, sent messengers to every part of Caffreland, with the hope 
of stopping them. They afforded refuge to all the British traders 
who fled to them, patrolled their boundary to stop marauders, and 
reinforced a post under the command of a British officer. 

In the feeling of the Christian chiefs that to destroy the bonds of 



54 



union with Christian and civilized men, is to replunge their people 
into barbarism, and to annul the advantages that they have learnt 
to prize, lies, we are convinced, the main security we have for peace 
and quietness on our borders. 

To bring barbarians, however, to this opinion, must require a cer- 
tain continuance of equable and temperate policy towards them ; 
and the experiment of subduing their fierceness, by the mild influ- 
ence of civilization, remains to be tried on those tribes who have 
most distinguished themselves in the late lamentable hostilities. We 
fear that Macomo has had too much reason to allege to Dr. Philip, 
who was urging him to have his children sent to school, " All that 
you have said is very good ; but I am shot at every day ; my huts 
are set fire to, and I can only sleep with one eye open, and the other 
eye shut ; I do not know where my place is, and how can I get my 
children to be instructed?" 

Tzatzoe,who is himself a Christian, and who has himself laboured 
for the conversion of his countrymen, says that the " word of God 
had once made a deep impression upon the Caffres but the com- 
mando of Colonel Frazer put a stop to the labours of the missionaries, 
and that since that time commandos have continued, and the people 
have not been able to learn. The Caffres say, " We might learn if 
we were not teazed every day and Tzatzoe adds, " Whenever the 
missionaries preach to the Caffres, or whenever I myself preach or 
speak to my countrymen, they say, ' Why do not the missionaries 
first go and preach to the people on the other side ; why do not they 
preach to their own countrymen, and convert them first.'" 

Some progress was made in the instruction of these turbulent, ir- 
ritated spirits, when affairs came unhappily to the crisis, which put 
a stop to all attempts of the kind. Tzatzoe himself had at his place 
a missionary, Mr. Brownlee, and a church, capable of containing 
300 persons, generally filled on the Sunday ; together with schools ; 
and though these incipient improvements have, we fear, been crushed 
by the events of the war, and the occupation of the station by the 
British troops, it is yet satisfactory to find him expressing his 
opinion, that " If peaceable relations and a good understanding be- 
tween the Caffres and the colony were established, and if a state of 
tranquillity were restored to the Caffre nation, they would yet gladly 
receive missionaries, and attend to instruction." 

In reviewing the general case before us, we have endeavoured to 
fix our attention rather on the requirements of justice and morality 
than on the motives of interest. It may not, however, be irrelevant 
to observe, that the latter are in close alliance with the former, and 
that we cannot infringe on these without sacrificing true economy. 
We again beg to be distinctly understood, that we are making no 
charge against the body of English settlers : we believe them to 
have been great losers by a course of mistaken policy : and we 
commiserate the misfortunes which this has brought upon great 
numbers who have taken no active part in abetting a system of irri- 



55 



tation. In the matter of commerce alone they have been losers ; 
for we have abundant evidence to show that the Caffres were ac- 
quiring an increasing desire for British manufactures, and that this 
unhappy war interrupted a trade which, though of late growth, had 
amounted to at least 30,0007. per annum in the purchase of Euro- 
pean commodities.* 

This fact, coupled with the knowledge of the profit we already 
derive from other nations in an incipient state of civilization, proves 
the utility to ourselves of cultivating with them the relations of peace 
and of mutual good understanding; and we repeat our conviction, 
that the most effectual mode of making such nations desirable neigh- 
bours, is the giving them Christian instruction, and allowing them, 
through the equity and the moderation of our political conduct, a 
fair opportunity to profit by the instruction afforded, 



CONCLUSION. 

Your Committee cannot recapitulate the evils which have been 
the result of the intercourse between civilized and barbarous nations 
more truly, than in the summary contained in the interrogation and 
responses of the secretaries of the three Missionary societies most 
conversant with the subject, and to which we have already re- 
ferred. 

4329. To Mr. Coates.~\ Is it your opinion that Europeans coming 
into contact with native inhabitants of our settlements tends (with the 
exception of cases in which missions are established) to deteriorate the 
morals of the natives ; to introduce European vices ; to spread among 
them new and dangerous diseases; to accustom them to the use of 
ardent spirits ; to the use of European arms and instruments of de- 
struction ; to the seduction of native females ; to the decrease of the 
native population ; and to prevent the spread of civilization, education, 
commerce and Christianity : and that the effect of European inter- 
course has been, upon the whole, a calamity to the heathen and savage 
nations. In the first place, is it your opinion that European contact 
with native inhabitants, always excepting the cases in which missions 
have been established, tends to deteriorate the morals of the natives ? — 
Yes. 

4330. To Mr. Beecham.~\ Do you concur in that opinion? — Yes. 

4331. To Mr. Ellis.'] Do you concur in that opinion? — Certainly. 



* Lord Glenelg's Despatch to Sir B. D'Urban, 26 December, 1834, 
p. 64. The Rev. S. Kay states, that not a trader was travelling in 
Caffraria at the time the missionaries commenced their labours ; when 
the war broke out 200 traders were in that country. 



56 



4332. Does it tend to introduce European vices? — Mr. Coates.] Yes. 
—Mr. Beecham.] Yes.— Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4333. Does it tend to spread among them new and dangerous dis- 
eases? — Mr. Coates.] Yes.— Mr. Beecham.] Yes.— Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4334. Does it tend to accustom them to the use of ardent spirits? — 
Mr. Coates.] Yes.— Mr. Beecham.] Yes.— Mr. Ellis.]— Yes. 

4335. And to the use of European arms and instruments of destruc- 
tion? — Mr. Coates.] Yes; but might I add a word which would go 
rather to express a doubt whether the ultimate result of that be injuri- 
ous to the savage nations ? but that it has the tendency suggested in the 
question, I have no doubt. — Mr. Beecham.] Yes. — Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4336. To the seduction of native females ? — Mr. Coates.] Yes. — Mr. 
Beecham.] Yes. — Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4337. To the decrease of population? — Mr. Coates.] Yes.— Mr. 
Beecham.] Yes.— Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4338. Does it tend to impede that civilization which, if Europeans 
properly conducted themselves, might be introduced? — Mr. Coates.] 
Certainly. — Mr. Beecham.] Yes. — Mr. Ellis.] I have no doubt that it 
does. 

4339. The same as to education? — Mr. Coates.] Certainly. — Mr. 
Beecham.] Yes. — Mr. Ellis.] Certainly. 

4340. The same as to commerce? — Mr. Coates.] Certainly. — Mr. 
Beecham..] Yes. — Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4341. Is it your opinion that it tends to prevent the spread of the 
Christian Gospel? — Mr. Coates.] Most assuredlv. — Mr. Beecham.] 
Yes.— Mr. Ellis.] Yes. 

4342. Is it generally your opinion that the effect of European inter- 
course, saving where missions have been established, has been, upon 
the whole, hitherto a calamity upon the native and savage nations 
whom we have visited?— Mr. Coates.] That I have no doubt about. — 
Mr. Beecham.] Yes, generally. — Mr. Ellis.] Generally, I should think 
it has. 

4343. As far as you know, in instances of contention between Euro- 
peans and natives, has it generally happened that the Europeans were 
in fault? — Mr. Coates.] Universally, so far as I have information upon 
the subject. — Mr. Beecham.] Yes. — Mr. Ellis.] I have not met with 
an instance in which, when investigated, it has not been found that the 
aggression was upon the part of the Europeans. 

These allegations have, we conceive, been clearly proved in the 
evidence of which we have given an abstract ; and we have also seen 
the effects of conciliatory conduct, and of Christian instruction. 
One of the two systems we must have to preserve our own security, 
and the peace of our colonial borders ; either an overwhelming mili- 
tary force with all its attendant expenses, or a line of temperate con- 
duct and of justice towards our neighbours. 

" The main point which I would have in view," said a witness 
before your Committee, " would be trade, commerce, peace and 
civilization. The other alternative is extermination; for you can 
stop nowhere ; you must go on ; you may have a short respite when 
you have driven panic into the people, but you must come back to 
the same thing until you have shot the last man.'' From all the 
bulky evidence before us, we can come to no other conclusion ; and 



57 



considering the power, and the mighty resources of the British na- 
tion, we must believe that the choice rests with ourselves. 

Great Britain has, in former times, countenanced evils of great 
magnitude, — slavery and the slave-trade ; but for these she has 
made some atonement ; for the latter, by abandoning the traffic ; 
for the former, by the sacrifice of 20 millions of money. But for 
these offences there was this apology ; they were evils of an ancient 
date, a kind of prescription might be pleadedfor them, and great 
interests were entwined with them. 

An evil remains very similar in character, and not altogether un- 
fit to be compared with them in the amount of misery it produces. 
The oppression of the natives of barbarous countries is a practice 
which pleads no claim to indulgence ; it is an evil of comparatively 
recent origin, imperceptible and unhallowed in its growth ; it never 
has had even the colour of sanction from the legislature of this 
country ; no vested rights are associated with it, and we have not 
the poor excuse that it contributes to any interest of the state. On 
the contrary, in point of economy, of security, of commerce, of re- 
putation, it is a short-sighted and disastrous policy. As far as it 
has prevailed, it has been a burthen on the empire. It has thrown 
impediments in the way of successful colonization ; it has engen- 
dered wars, in which great expenses were necessarily incurred, and 
no reputation could be won ; and it has banished from our confines, 
or exterminated, the natives, who might have been profitable work- 
men, good customers, and good neighbours. These unhappy results 
have not flowed from any determination on the part of the govern- 
ment of this country to deal hardly with those who are in a less ad- 
vanced state of society ; but they seem to have arisen from igno- 
rance, from the difficulty which distance interposes in checking the 
cupidity and punishing the crimes of that adventurous class of Eu- 
ropeans who lead the way in penetrating the territory uncivilized 
man, and from the system of dealing with the rights of the natives. 
Many reasons unite for apprehending that the evils which we have 
described will increase if the duty of coming to a solemn determina- 
tion as to the policy we shall adopt towards ruder nations be now 
neglected ; the chief of these reasons is, the national necessity of 
finding some outlet for the superabundant population of Great Bri- 
tain and Ireland. It is to be feared that, in the pursuit of this be- 
nevolent and laudable object, the rights of those who have not the 
means of advocating their interests' or exciting sympathy for their 
sufferings, may be disregarded. 

This, then, appears to be the moment for the nation to declare, 
that with all its desire to give encouragement to emigration, and to 
find a soil to which our surplus population may retreat, it will tole- 
rate no scheme which implies violence or fraud in taking possession 
of such a territory ; that it will no longer subject itself to the guilt 
of conniving at oppression, and that it will take upon itself the task 



58 



of defending those who are too weak and too ignorant to defend 
themselves. 

Your Committee have hitherto relied chiefly on arguments, show- 
ing that no national interest, even in its narrowest sense, is sub- 
served by encroachments on the territory or disregard of the rights 
of the aboriginal inhabitants of barbarous countries ; but they feel 
it their duty to add, that there is a class of motives of a higher order 
which conduce to the same conclusion. 

The British empire has been signally blessed by Providence, and 
her eminence, her strength, her wealth, her prosperity, her intel- 
lectual, her moral and her religious advantages, are so many reasons 
for peculiar obedience to the laws of Him who guides the destinies 
of nations. These were given for some higher purpose than com- 
mercial prosperity and military renown, "it is not to be doubted 
that this country has been invested with wealth and power, with 
arts and knowledge, with the sway of distant lands, and the mastery 
of the restless waters, for some great and important purpose in the 
government of the world. Can we suppose otherwise than that it 
is our office to carry civilization and humanity, peace and good 
government, and, above all, the knowledge of the true God, to the 
uttermost ends of the earth ?;" He who has made Great Britain 
what she is, will inquire at our hands how we have employed the 
influence He has lent to us in our dealings with the untutored and 
defenceless savage ; whether it has been engaged in seizing their 
lands, warring upon their people, and transplanting unknown dis- 
ease, and deeper degradation, through the remote regions of the 
earth ; or whether we have, as far as we have been able, informed 
their ignorance, and invited and afforded them the opportunity of 
becoming partakers of that civilization, that innocent commerce, 
that knowledge and that faith with which it has pleased a gracious 
Providence to bless our own country. 



SUGGESTIONS. 

Having thus adverted to some of the more remarkable of those 
incidents by which the intercourse between the British Colonies and 
the Aborigines in their vicinity has been characterized, it remains to 
consider how the recurrence of similar calamities can be most ef- 
fectually averted. 

It is obviously difficult to combine in one code rules to govern 
our intercourse with nations standing in different relationships to- 
wards us. Some are independent communities ; others are, by the 
nature of treaties, or the force of circumstances, under the protection 



59 



of Great Britain, and yet retain their own laws and usages ; some 
are our subjects, and have no laws but such as we impose. 

To this variety in their circumstances must be added a variety as 
great in their moral and physical condition. They are found in all 
the grades of advancement, from utter barbarism to semi-civiliza- 
tion. 

To propose regulations which shall apply to our own subjects and 
to independent tribes, to those emerging from barbarism, and to 
those in the rudest state of nature, is a task from which your Com- 
mittee would shrink, were it not that all the witnesses, differing as 
they do upon almost every other topic, unite in ascribing much of 
the evil which has arisen to the uncertainty and vacillation of our 
policy. Your Committee cannot too forcibly recommend that no 
exertion should be spared, and no time lost, in distinctly settling 
and declaring the principles which shall henceforth guide and govern 
our intercourse with those vast multitudes of uncivilized men, who 
may suffer in the greatest degree, or in the greatest degree be bene- 
fited, by that intercourse. 

The regulations which we would suggest for that purpose are 
either general or special ; that is, they either extend to all parts of 
the globe in which we are brought into contact with uncivilized 
tribes, or they apply only to the particular case of some one settle- 
ment. In the first place, therefore, we will advert to those general 
regulations which we have to suggest, and which may be reduced 
under nine separate heads. 

I. — Protection of Natives to devolve on the Executive. 

II. — Contracts for Service to be limited. 

III. — Sale of ardent Spirits to be prevented. 

IV. — Regulations as to Lands within British Dominions. 

V. — New Territories not to be acquired without Sanction of 
Home Government. 

VI. — Religious Instruction and Education to be provided, 

VII. — Punishment of Crimes. 

VIII. — Treaties with Natives inexpedient. 

IX. — Missionaries to be encouraged. 

Each of these is treated of at some length by the 
Committee. 



NORTH AMERICA. 

On the subject of the relations between the British colonies in 
North America and the Aborigines on that continent, your Com- 
mittee abstain from offering any specific suggestions, because they 
understand that Her Majesty's Government have for some time past 



60 



been engaged in correspondence respecting it with the Lieutenant- 
governor of Upper Canada, and that the case, although as yet im- 
mature for decision, will probably engage the attention of Parliament 
whenever the estimates for the expenses of what is called the Indian 
department shall be brought under the consideration of the House 
of Commons. Your Committee are unwilling to embarrass the Go- 
vernment by suggestions, which, being offered during the pendency 
of the discussions on the subject, might proceed upon imperfect 
grounds and point to erroneous conclusions. 



THE END. 



Joseph Rickerby, Printer., Sherbourn Lane. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 



PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 It 



014 728 835 9 



